Investigating Socio-economic factors affecting the participation of local communities in the sustainable management of rangelands (Case study: Bahar rangelands in Hamadan Province)

Participation and rule of collective wisdom and ranchers’ involvement in decisions has become common practice nowadays. Sustainable development can be followed through targeting and leading participation to the preservation and restoration of natural resources. So, participation concepts and its effective factors have to be investigated carefully. This study was conducted to investigate the socio-economic factors effective on ranchers’ participation in a sustainable management of summer rangelands of Bahar plains in Hamadan Province. Statistical population included 56 inventories. The sampling was implemented using questionnaire in a random-stratified fashion. The effective socio-economic factors on terracing adoption were analyzed through Logit regression. Results showed that there was a positive significant relation between ranchers` participation and government credit facilities, annual income from livestock, awareness of range management activities and their consequences on range degradation. We also found a negatively significant relationship between ranchers’ participation and increasing rangeland area. Interpreting weighted aggregate elasticity and marginal effects of effective factors showed that the elasticity belonged to the awareness level, such that, one percent increase in this factor led to 2.36 percent increase in acceptance of participating. Also, the most marginal effect belonged to the government credit facilities, such that, yearly increase in this factor led to 0.17 percent increase in acceptance of participating. According to the study findings, promoting cooperation of sustainable management may not be realized without rancher's participation. Educational programs, advocacy and financial support could have important roles in this regard.