Analysis of Effective Factors in Sustainable Management of Forest Resources among Local Communities of Kerman Province

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the effective factors in sustainable management of forest resources (SMFR) among local communities. Given that forested areas form a major part of Faryab county, the focus of the present study was on natural resources which forested lands of the is located in rural district of Mehruyeh. Statistical population included all the exploiters in Mehruyeh village utilizing forest resources (N=7000). The sample size (173 individuals) was obtained using Cochran formula sampling technique based on simple randomized sampling method. The research instrument was a questionnaire which validity and reliability were confirmed by an expert panel and Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α>0.7). Data analysis was conducted using SPSSwin18 and Lisrel8.54 whose results showed that the most important destructive causes in the village were overgrazing and deforestation to create arable lands; furthermore, most of the studied exploiters followed sustainable management of forest resources at a low level. Also, there was a significant difference between sustainable management of forest resources and variables age, forest working record, education level, and the kind of forest exploitation system. The correlation analysis results showed a significantly positive relationship between political-supporting factors, psychological-training factors, cultural-social factors, economic-supporting factors, and sustainable management. Moreover, regression results indicated that the foregoing factors accounted for 78.9% of variance changes associated with sustainable management of forest resources.