مجله تحقیقات حمایت و حفاظت جنگلها و مراتع ایران
سال بیستم شماره 2 (پیاپی 40، پاییز و زمستان 1401)

The purpose of this study is to clarify the necessity of considering buffer area and its role in natural or man-made ecosystems, with specific functions. Evaluating the direct and indirect destructive consequences of human manipulations, such as high-rise construction in buffer areas and its effects on the central core of this type of ecosystem is very essential. The National Botanical Garden of Iran has other functions such as preserving Iran's important and endemic species and is a source of their reproduction. In addition, as one of the respiratory lungs of Tehran, it plays a key role in air conditioning and educational programs. Based on this, the signs of urban development on different parts of the environment of this garden including water, soil, air, vegetation and wildlife have been investigated in this article. Based on the available information and the results of field survay, the long-term effects of this type of development on the NBGI have had an irreversible effect on the hydrological changes of the underground water resources, and in the future, the survival and sustainability of the NBGI will be affected due to the lack of underground water supply. In addition, reducing the wind and preventing the necessary ventilation and the formation of thermal islands will cause an outbreak of pests and important diseases on plants. Also, the limitation of soil permeability and the damage to aesthetic values of the garden are other negative consequences of this excessive development, which will threaten the sustainable life of the NBGI.

One of the environmental problems of the Zagros forests, is the occurrence of oak decline phenomenon in Zagros Forest. The intensity of oak decline in the North Zagros is slower than in the Middle and South Zagros. The purpose of this study was to investigate the trends of oak decline in forests of Baneh city from 2019 to 2020.Four sites including Belveh and Gandman (southern aspect) and Saraki and Mirhesam (northern aspect) were selected and 100 trees were evaluated in each site. Oak decline status was recorded during two years of research in five classes: healthy trees, dieback in crwon, dieback up to 50%, dieback more than 50% and standing dead tree. Wilcoxon and Friedman (non-parametric tests) were used to compare the decline codes at each site for two consecutive years and to compare the decline codes at four sites per year (separately). The results showed that the greatest change of oak decline class was in Saraki site (with 0.27 change). At all four sites, the trees were shifting to oak decline classes in the second year of the research, and the change in oak decline classes at each site for two consecutive years (Wilcoxon test) was statistically significant. Besides, the change of dieback trees (dieback and dieback up to 50%) from 24% of trees in 2019 to 44% of trees in 2020 had changed. Most oak decline was observed on the southern aspect. Overall, it is suggested that human intervention be controlled.

Rangeland use is the most important land use in Iran, as more than half of the country is categorized in this land use. Regulating the hydrological cycle and flood control are among the regulatory services in rangeland ecosystems. The flood event in late March 2019, which occurred on vast areas of Iran caused severe damages to natural and human resources. This study was conducted to assess the contributing factors to rangeland degradation in Northern Iran, which tries to assess the relationship between these factors and the flood. Thus, by filed visit of rangelands in the flooded areas of Golestan province, the rangeland condition was determined based on the modified four factor method. Landsat satellite images between 2008-2009 and 2018-2019 were used to determine the area of land use changes. Semi-structured interviews with 69 local pastoralists were also conducted to identify the contributing factors to the floods. Results showed that the rangeland condition in different flooded areas are mainly in the very poor to poor category and grazing intensity on these areas is more than 1.3 times the rangeland grazing capacity. Findings of satellite images analysis revealed that rangeland landuse has had a decreasing trend between 2008-2019 in Atrak and Gorganrud basins where 70,000 ha of landuse change is estimated. Result from the semi-structural interviews introduced over grazing and high prices of supplementary feeding are the main factors affecting the degradation of rangelands in the north of Golestan province from pastoral communities’ point of view. We found that 91% of the participants believed rangeland road networks and 76% believed livestock loss were the most affected items in the 2019 flood. Therefore, it is recommended that rangeland conservation, restoration and development planning should become a priority and necessary measure for flood control and management.

Wetland mangrove forests, are one of the unique ecosystems that provide a wide range of functions and ecosystem services such as food production, water purification and cleansing as well as providing the habitat and nursery grounds for birds and the other aquatic organisms. Despite the numerous and unique values, these ecosystems are now subject to a diversity of pollutions and threats caused by human activities, have become sensitive ecosystems with severely in need of protection. To achieve this goal- the WTA of local communities living in the areas adjacent to these forests was evaluated based on data derived from questionnaire surveys. The CVM questionnaires with dichotomous choice format were carefully designed with WTA measure and local people were asked about their preferences for reduction of access to Hara forests under hypothetical scenarios in which they would receive monetary compensation for lessening or forgoing forest utilization. The results of binary logit model for CVM survey data showed that 99 percent of respondents willing to accept a reduction in their forest utilization and participate in the protection programs. The mean WTA estimated 2110274 Rial/household/day (63308220 Rial/month).

Wildfires in natural resources cause huge human, financial, environmental and ecotourism losses to countries every year. The average of annual fire aria in the world's forests is estimated at four million square kilometers. These wildfires lead to the destruction of vegetation, global warming, air pollution, destruction of environmental diversity, and intensifying the phenomenon of desertification. Various natural and human factors (intentional and non-intentional) are effective in the occurrence and spread of fires in the forests and pastures. Ecoterrorism and environmental terrorism are two common approaches for intentional arson attacks in natural resources. One of the important and relatively new act of environmental terrorism is the phenomenon of pyroterrorism or deliberate destructive fires in forests and pastures. Simplicity, low risk, low financial cost and small number of required actors, weakness of governments in quick containment, high advertising range and inflicting significant damages are among the attractions of such operations for saboteurs. In order to minimize the damage caused by natural and intentional fires, the following defense measures are recommended: equipping the institutions responsible for extinguishing forest and pasture fires with advanced and up-to-date firefighting equipment and facilities, attracting the active participation of local people and training firefighters. Forest dwellers and pastoralists in identifying and extinguishing fires in forests and pastures, improving management practices of forests and pastures, monitoring information about threats and using new technologies in the field of security and fire extinguishing.

Golestan National Park is the oldest registered national park in Iran and a unique sanctuary for wildlife. This area was registered as one of Iran's Biosphere Reserves by UNESCO in 1957. Different non-governmental sectors play a role in the protection of this park, and the purpose of this study is to prioritize the importance of their role in its protection. For this purpose, participatory indicators of preventing forest destruction, educating local communities, extinguishing fire, dealing with predators, preventing the entry of livestock, preventing fire, cleaning the environment and performance scores for non-governmental groups, non-governmental organizations, nature partners and local communities with The use of the questionnaire was investigated, and the weight of each index was calculated using Shannon's entropy, and finally, the importance of each influential community in park management was prioritized using the TOPSIS model. In this study, the high importance of participatory indicators of forest destruction prevention, cooperation with environmental department, dealing with illegal hunters and environmental cleaning in park management were obtained with weights of 0.337, 0.187, 0.145 and 0.112, respectively. The results also show the high importance of non-governmental organizations with a weight of 0.87 in the participatory management of the park, so that local communities and nature partners were placed in the next priorities with weights of 0.36 and 0.06. Since the park, with its large area and special regional conditions, is affected by environmental and human tensions, according to the results obtained from this study, it can be said that non-governmental organizations and communities

Land cover change has become one of the most challenges due to the interaction of negative effects of climate change with human activities. In this study, land cover changes in the Hendijan Basin with a focus on the impact on dust sources located in Khuzestan province were investigated. Areas of forests, rangelands, woodlands, water, agricultural lands, residential and barren lands were extracted during 30 years at 1987 and 2017 using Landsat image processing. Dust sources located in Khuzestan have been monitored and land cover changes in have been revealed. The results show that trend of land cover changes inside and outside Khuzestan province is different from each other. In fact, the highest rate of change compared to beginning of study is occurred in mountainous part of the Hindijan Basin is due to increasing lakes of dams (9.7 times) and in the plain part due to the expansion of residential lands and also increasing cultivated area (8 and 4.9 times). Also, 936.31 square kilometers, has been added to barren lands, at the same time, the area of rangelands and forests has decreased 367.60 and 2633.40 square kilometers, respectively. Detection of changes in Khuzestan dust sources shows that the east and southeast area of Ahvaz, which was covered with vegetation and water (seasonal floods and flood plains) in winter of 1366, has become barren land in 1396. Monitoring land cover changes and reporting results helps managers make more informed decisions.

Drought in Zagros, which is one of the most important ecosystems in Iran, is a big challenge. Remote sensing has a unique application in diagnosis, monitoring and management of natural resources. The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze the drought situation in the middle and southern Zagros basin based on atmospheric general circulation models and neural network in relation to remote sensing indices NDVI, VCI, TCI, VHI, DDI, EVI, NDWI and SAVI. At first the Modis satellite time series images were used in a 20-year period. First the mentioned indicators were produced from MOD021KM products of Terra sensor from 2000 to 2019. Then amount of precipitation were estimated by using of statistical-dynamic model MP5 under RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios and neural network and Remote sensing indicators during the period from 2020 to 2039, And then the state of droughts was investigated in 2 periods of 20 years based on the SPI method (2000-2019) and based on RCP scenarios and remote sensing methods and neural networks for the next 20 years (2021-2039). The results showed that both in the period of 2000-2019 and 2020-2039, the high areas of the studied area have and will have severe and very severe wet year. Also, the spatial analysis of droughts and remote sensing indices of the second period has depicted an irregular pattern in all indices, and only in NDVI and SAVI indices, the spatial analysis of droughts has been able to present a relatively regular pattern

In recent years, climate changes and the expansion of transportation facilities, have elevated plant pests and diseases outbreak and transmission in natural ecosystems. Codification and implementationof effective laws to combat forest pests and diseases is one ofthe ways to achieve sustainable forest management. Comparative law with an interdisciplinary approach, provides insights to find new legal solutions to cope with emerging challenges, suggest new legal rules, and amend statutory law in specific domains. In this article the laws of forests and rangelandsof Iran, France, Turkey, and South Africa were investigated and provisions related to insects, pests, and diseases were extracted. The provisions were classified into three categories of measures including before, during, and after the outbreak and several pillars emerged in each category. Each pillar was described, compared, explained, and finally evaluated. The findings showed that the following measures have been considered in the laws of countries: Silviculture practices, removal of damaged trees and woody residuals, development of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management and their continuous monitoring, declaration of outbreak hotspots and contaminated areas as special areas for conservation, collection of harmful organisms and pathogens or their habitats, biological control, and prescribed burning. The results showed that in the studied laws, emphasis is placed on preventing stages of pests and disease outbreaks rather than during and after the outbreaks that remind us prevention is better than cure. These findings provide pillars for amending the national forest and range laws and regulations to combat wild plant insects, pests, and diseases.

Euproctis chrysorrhoea L. is the key pests of Arasbaran forests and has very high distribution. This research was conducted in order to investigating species diversity and richness of the arthropods related to wintering larvae of pest in eight regions of Ahar and Horand in East Azarbaijan in 2019. Number of 20 oak trees were selected in each area and 10 nests of wintering larvae were collected from each tree and transferred to the laboratory. Isolation of arthropods inside larval nests was done in the laboratory and species richness indices, Shannon and Simpson diversity of them at different elevation classes were also calculated. In this research, the number of seven species of arthropods on the overwintering larvae of E. chrysorrhoea were collected and identified as follows: Brachymeria intermedia Nees, Monodontomerus aerus Walker, Pimpla turionellae L., Meteorus obsoletus Wesmael, Telenemus sp., Tachina praeceps Meigen and Thomisas sp. The highest number of arthropods (six species) was observed in Niagh area in Horand. The highest frequency was belong to Telenemus sp. Diversity and species richness of arthropods of E. chrysorrhoea was less in different regions of Ahar than Horand. So that the highest and lowest values of Shannon's diversity index with values of 2.56 and 1.04, as well as the highest and lowest values of Simpson index with values of 0.76 and 0.31, respectively, were recorded in Niagh in Horand and Goravan in Ahar. Results showed that the height above sea level did not affect diversity indices of arthropods related to wintering larvae.

Participatory management is one of biodiversity conservation approaches. This research assesses specialists’ views on local communities’ participation in biodiversity conservation activities using a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology. Before quantitative research, an exploratory qualitative stage was conducted and a sample of 32 specialists from the Environment Administration, the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Administration, the Agriculture-Jahad Organization, and the Research and Education Center of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the Zanjan Province, Zanjan and Tarom Townships, and their relevant counties and sub-counties of the Sorkhabad Protected Area, were selected through the purposeful sampling technique. Qualitative data collection was done through semi-structured interviews about indicators of biodiversity conservation activities in the region. In quantitative part, a descriptive-correlational survey was conducted to collect data by a self-completion questionnaire. The results showed that the communities have mostly participated in biodiversity conservation activities in a passive way (manipulated involvement) and at the informing level, while the higher levels of participation have been neglected. Moreover, a significantly positive relationship existed between participation in knowledge-improving measures and its implementation, and between the participation in diversification and livelihood-improving measures and its implementation. It is essential to implement biodiversity conservation and management by a comprehensive and multi-dimensional governance, strengthening local communities’ participation, and coordinating the activities of various organizations and actors to conserve and restore ecosystems and species of protected areas.

In a survey on the fauna of ladybirds which was carried out in Shahrood and Bastam regions during 2015, oenopia conglobata with a frequency of 11/23% relative to the other species was in fourth level. Ladybirds are the most important natural enemies of pests such as aphids, psyllids and lace bugs that activity of them is proved on the non-fruit trees and fruit trees. Color pattern variation of the elytra and pronotum in Oenopia conglobata was studied on ornamental and forest plants in two differents weather conditions in Shahrood and Bastam regions. Samples were collected by net-trap and white-tray. After transferring to the laboratory, were placed in glass with alcohol 75%. Identification was conducted based on general morphological characters as well as of their genitalia. Different morphs were identified based on morphological characteristics including color, size, pattern and number spots on dorsal surface of the elytra and pronotum. 5 different morphs of O. conglobata were identified so morphs 4 and 2 had the highest and the least abundance, respectively.

The genus Andrena Fabricius, 1775 has ca. 1600 species (Wood & Monfared, 2022) and ca. 100 subgenera in the world (Radchenko et al., 2021; Pisanty et al., 2021). To date, 40 subgenera and 197 species of the genus Andrena have been reported from Iran (Wood & Monfared, 2022). They are the most important pollinators of natural vegetation and cultivated plants (Osytshnjuk et al. 2005). In the conducted surveys in order to identify the pollinator bees of the genus Andrena during 2018-2021 in the rangelands of Qazvin province, out of 1000 pollinator bees of the superfamily Apoidea, 65 samples of the genus Andrena were separated and identified; Using valid identification keys, 20 species belonging to 13 subgenera were identified as follows. Of them, four marked species with * are reported for the first time from Iran:Andrena (Aenandrena) aeneiventris Morawitz, 1872, A. (Campylogaster) lateralis Morawitz, 1876, A. (Chlorandrena) cinereophila Warncke, 1965*, A. (Euandrena) fulvida Schenck, 1853*, A. (Leucandrena) parviceps Kriechbaumer, 1873, A. (Melandrena) albopunctata (Rossi, 1792), A. (Melandrena) morio (Brullé, 1832), A. (Micrandrena) niveata Friese, 1887 *, A. (Micrandrena) falsifica Perkins, 1915, A. (Micrandrena) floricola Eversmann, 1852, A. (Notandrena) azerbaidshanica (Lebedev, 1932), A. (Plastandrena) bimaculata (Kirby, 1802), A. (Plastandrena) limata (Fabricius, 1781), A. (Plastandrena) pilipes (Fabricius, 1781), A. (Plastandrena) tibialis (Kirby, 1802), A. (Poliandrena) limbata Eversmann, 1852, A. (Simandrena) transitoria (Morawitz, 1871), A. (Truncandrena) derbentina (Morawitz, 1886), A. (Zonandrena) chrysopyga Schenck, 1853 *, A. (Zonandrena) gravida (Imhoff, 1832).