The Role of Collaborative Projects in Rural Women's Empowerment and Conservation of Environment: Case Study of Hossein Abad Plain in Sarbishe

Abstract

Today, the emission of greenhouse and global warming are two major global environmental threats. This research attempts to investigate the mediating role of carbon sequestration collaborative project in empowering women and thereby protecting the environment. This is a descriptive-analytic study using questionnaire as an instrument for data collection. A comparison was made between empowerment of women in the target villages where carbon sequestration collaborative project was implemented and control villages with no development plan. The population consisted of women living in villages with more than 20 families in Sarbishe city. A sample of 319 people from the target villages and 354 people from control villages were selected using Cochrane formula. The data analysis in the two samples was done by using t test, Mann-Whitney Wilcoxon test and unequal variance. Based on results, Carbon Sequestration Project in women's economic empowerment is effective in protecting the environment and in all indicators except for the index. From the social aspect, according to the output of t test, the differences in social indicators were significant between two groups of women. In total, carbon sequestration project in the under study area had led to empowerment of rural women, prevention of land degradation and environmental protection