Planning of multiple land uses of Zagros forests in terms of Socio-economic and political criteria (Case study: Kabirkooh forest of Badreh city, Ilam province)

Document Type : Complete scientific research article

Authors

1 Scientific Member

2 Associate Prof., College of forestry, University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

3 College of forestry, University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

4 Prof., College of Environment, University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

Abstract

Abstract
Background and objectives:
In land use planning, after evaluation of ecological and socio-economic capabilities at the level of the planning land units, the prioritization of incompatible land uses and activities in terms of macro socio-economic and political criteria at the unit level of the study area is also necessary. The purpose of this study was to investigate the application of Analytic Network Process (ANP) for prioritizing of incompatible land uses in terms of macro non-ecological criteria (economic, social and politics) and for multiple use planning of Zagros forests.
Materials and methods:
In doing so, the list of multiple forest uses and activities were prepared as appropriate to the circumstances Zagros region by available research resources. According to this, 11 incompatible land use or activities, including forest and range, wooded rangeland, rangeland, dry orchard, agroforestry, dry agriculture, restoration of plant ecosystem, picnics and campaigns, snow skating, rock climbing and environmental conservation, were identified and prioritized in terms of economic, social and policy macro factors by ANP. In this regard, macro socio-economic and macro political factors of the country's natural resources were selected based on the sources of the document of the Perspective of the Islamic Republic of Iran at 1404, current rules of natural resources and general environmental policies of the country by Delphi technique and clustered by ANP. Then, the network connections of the elements and clusters of the model were also determined by the Delphi method. The priority of non-ecological factors were evaluated in terms of three criteria: economic, social and policy based on the clustering model. In this model, the economic criterion is divided into two sub-criteria of employment and special benefit; the social criterion into four sub-criteria of local disputes, literacy rate, natural resource culture and current land uses; and the political criterion into three sub-criteria of conservation and restoration of plans, water and soil conservation and increased levels of underground aquifers; and reliance on domestic resources in the development of the country. Also, the weight of the criteria and sub-criteria were determined by pairwise comparison based on nine numeric method using the expert opinion in the form of a questionnaire.
Results:
The results showed that there was a network connection and several dependencies between the elements and clusters of the non-ecological prioritization model of forest multiple uses and activities. Ranking results with ANP showed that the highest priority were allocated to three tourism activities, including picnics and campaigns, snow skating and rock climbing respectively, and the lowest priority allocated to rangeland and wooded rangeland respectively. The land uses including plant restoration, dry orchard, forest and range, environmental conservation, dry agriculture and agroforestry, were ranked from fourth to ninth priorities, respectively.
Conclusion:
Due to the existence of a network link between the economic, social and policy factors affecting forest management in the studied area, the use of ANP technique is recommended for prioritization of multiple Zagros forests.

Keywords

Main Subjects


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