Development and prioritization of socio-economic strategies to elevate public participation in natural resource management using TOPSIS approach; Case Study: Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province (Iran)

Karimi Sangchini Ebrahim,Farajollahi Asghar,Meisam Jafari,Seyed Abdolhossein Arami,Islami Iman

doi:10.4314/jasem.v21i3.8

Abstract

Proper implementation of the participatory projects to conserve national natural resources has become much more important over the recent decades. This socio-economic research seeks developing effective strategies to increase public participation in experts' opinions of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province (Iran), in order to achieve sustainable and integrated management of natural resources. In the first step, the literature review led to the identification of 57 social parameters influencing public participation in the province. In the second step, from the parameters identified, with the help of the Delphi technique, 15 parameters were finalized by experts. This led to the formulation of the effective socioeconomic strategies in the study area. The next step was to prioritize these parameters. For this purpose, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used in Topsis solver software. The study’s statistical population was comprised of the executive experts of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province. The results of the prioritization indicated that the strategy of "the development of alternative livelihoods (A6)" ranks first with normal weight of 0.31, followed by "focus on profitable projects (A2)" with the normal weight of 0.2, and "strengthening social cohesion and trust (A7 )" with the normal weight of 0.12, as the most important strategies to increase public participation. The results of this study can be used by managers and executive decision-makers to protect natural resources and increase feasibility of management activities in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province.Keywords: Strategies effective on public participation, Delphi technique, Executive experts, TOPSIS, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province

Highlights

Environment and natural resources management are the main responsibilities of regional organizations and planning agencies in most countries of the world
Natural resource management role in preserving and protecting the natural resources have been taken into consideration in recent years
A very important and effective strategy would be the development of alternative livelihoods and focus on profitable projects

Summary

Introduction

Environment and natural resources management are the main responsibilities of regional organizations and planning agencies in most countries of the world. Due to the complexity and multi-dimensional nature of the ecosystem, integration of watershed hydrological and socio-economic systems with the aim of the management of natural resources, requires collaborative efforts of beneficiaries and by including the feedbacks from various stakeholders in the decision-making process (Voinov et al 2008). Participatory modeling and collaborative involvement of stakeholders at various stages of models development and data analysis, is an effective solution to decision-making under difficult circumstances (Voinov et al 2008), in which public participation is a major factor in the success of the comprehensive evaluation (Newham et al 2006). Esther and Ndalahwa (2003) believe that the factors affecting public participation in water resources management are influenced by the use of knowledge, experience and ideas of local communities. Some of the factors affecting public participation in natural resource projects, include enabling influential peoples such as councils, village administrators and the elders (okoba 2005, Chen et al 2005, Blomley, 2006, Wani et al 2008, Folhes et al 2015, RuizMallen et al, 2015 and Palacios et al 2015), enabling NGOs (Altieri 2002, Chen et al 2005, Farrington and Lobo, 2008, Wani et al 2008, Folhes et al 2015, Palacios et al 2015 Ruiz-Mallen et al 2015), governmental support mechanisms and policy making including financial support and extension policies (Thompson, 1995; Chen et al 2005, Blomley 2006, Wani et al 2008, Ruiz-Mallen et al 2015), the economic situation of residents of the village due to the natural resources projects ( Chen et al 2005, Blomley, 2006, Wani et al 2008) and facilities (Chebaane, 2004, Gurung et al 2005, Okoba, 2005)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion