Determining effective socio-economic factors on degradation of Natural Resources in Tehran province

Current events indicate that the country's Natural Resources are being destroyed and with the present utilization approaches, this trend would be continued. A research study was conducted to determine effective socio-economic factors on degradation of Natural Resources in Tehran province. In the current study, an index was applied to determine the degradation considering forage and forest production. To achieve this goal, data were collected from experts and users of Natural Resources through questionnaires and interviews and relationship between the data and the degradation index was determined. The research was conducted based on the study of documents, archival data, and field works. Range condition of the province was compared during 1955 – 2001 in view of area change. Our results showed that decrement of forage production was higher in mountainous rangelands than that in plain areas (steppe and semi-steppe). In plain areas, land use change of Natural Resources to constructed and agricultural area was identified as the most important destructive factor. Staff and facilities deficiency for Natural Resources control was also known as the most important organizational factor. Based on statistical analysis, there was a strong inverse relationship between the size of posturs’ agricultural areas and the rate of rangeland destruction. According to the results, implementation of land use planning and management is important for Tehran province and land use change of natural resources was identified as an important destructive factor.