Analyzing the Role of Agricultural Beneficiaries in Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and Environment (Case of Hamadan County)

The countries' economy is basically dependent on both human and the natural resources so that social development of each country depends on them directly or indirectly. Nonetheless, some problems including the rapid growth of the population, unsustainable and unplanned exploitation, and lack of public awareness of development and reclamation rules have given an increase to the degradation process of these resources. So, one of the basic requirements to achieve the sustainable agriculture and rural development is sustainability in natural resource management and its protection. It should also be noted that public participation in natural resource management plays an important role in the prevention of this destructive process. The problem propels the aim of this research to determine the measure of agriculture beneficiaries’ role and importance in sustainable management. This research is an analytical - descriptive study which has a survey approach in collecting data. The statistical population consisted of 208 agriculture beneficiaries in villages around Hamadan city. Results showed that farmers could be classified into three groups: 34 percent in unsustainable group, 54 percent in moderately sustainable group and 12 percent in sustainable group. Also, multivariate regression showed that the variables of personal, extension and education, economics, policy and institutional and social activities could explain 79 percent (R2 = 0.791) of natural resources’ changes in agricultural sustainable management.