Rangelands Goods and Services Local People Views and Priorities (Case Study: Hezarjarib Rangelands, Mazandaran Province, Iran)

Rangelands are the main sources of forage for livestock feeding by localpeople. Beside forage production, rangeland ecosystems provide many other goods andservices such as medicinal plants, recreation, soil and water conservation, wildlife habitat,fishing, hunting, hiking, etc. Nevertheless, there are no much information about the waythat local communities think about the rangelands goods and services. Therefore, a studywas conducted to examine how local people think about rangelands goods and services andwhat their priorities are. The statistical populations were farmers, pastoralists andbeekeepers of Hezarjarib, Mazandaran Province, Iran and 100 people of them wererandomly selected as a sample. First, 17 indices of rangeland importance (goods andservices) were identified through questionnaires and oral interviews. Each indicator wasquestioned using a 5-point Likert-type scale. Validity was established using a panel ofexperts and Cronbach's alpha was used for reliability of questionnaire. Data were analyzedand then, interpreted using coefficients of variance. Medicinal plants, beekeeping, foodproduction for human and grazing lands for livestock were the first four prioritiesrespectively considered as the most important indices by local people. Aquaculture andfishing and soil conservation with the highest CVs were considered as the less importantindices in local people views. The results showed that the extent of range exploitation hadsignificant relationships with the education of exploiters, number of livestock, income andfarmland area. It was concluded that rangelands goods and services should be defined andevaluated based on local people views to be considered as a source of alternative income ornew enterprises for local people.