Factors influencing local people’s participation in sustainable forest management

Abstract

Every year, a great part of forests in Iran is ruined for various reasons. Meanwhile, the main factor responsible for deforestation and environmental challenges is the environmentally irresponsible behavior of people. Thus, the main goal of the present research was to discover the determinant factors of the participation of local communities in sustainable forest management (SFM) in Iran. The conceptual framework of the study was developed through reviewing the relevant literature. The statistical population consisted of local communities in Kerman province, southeastern Iran. Data were collected via a questionnaire and analyzed by the SPSS software package. The results indicated that nearly 70% of local communities did not participate in SFM sufficiently. In addition, the results of hierarchical regression indicated that among 25 studied variables, 10 variables (education, local communities’ participation, extension of forest conservation methods, favorable attitude towards sustainable management, reducing livelihood dependence on forest, increasing non-forested income, indirect use, improving exploiters’ knowledge and awareness, information channels, and resources, specifying forest boundaries with people participation) had a positive and significant impact on farmers’ participation in SFM and accounted for 70% of the total variance in the factors. The results can be used by natural resources and environment policymakers to develop and adopt sustainable policies and alleviate forest degradation.