G. H. Heidari ¹, A. Hosseinzadeh ², E. Zandi Esfahan ³, Hossein Barani ⁴, S. H. Zali ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Range and Watershed Management, Sari University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Sari, IR
2 Graduate in Range Management and Instructor of Payam-e-Noor University, IR
3 Rangeland Research Division, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands (RIFR), Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, IR
4 Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, IR

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of beneficiaries' economic condition on the ecological sustainability of allotments, utilized by Shahsavan nomads in summer rangelands of the Sabalan Mountain in the southern of Meshginshahr city, Ardabil province. The nomads were sampled by simple random sampling and the number of samples was determined to be 58 beneficiaries using Cochran's formula. The economic indicators examined in this study included the amount of annual income, number of livestock and the share of rangeland area. Ten indicators were chosen to measure and evaluate the ecological sustainability. The process of indicators selection was based on rangeland condition and rangeland health by using the guidance of professors and experts of Meshginshahr Natural Resources Office as well as considering the condition of the study area. Data analysis was performed by statistical methods proportional to the level of measured variables using SPSS18 software. According to the obtained results, a significant negative relationship was found between the number of livestock and sustainability index (r_s=-0.5 and p<0.01), indicating that the rate of degradation will increase directly by increasing the number of livestock per unit area, resulting in decreased sustainability index.  As well, Spearman's correlation test revealed a significant negative correlation between sustainability index and annual income and the share of rangeland area. Based on the amount of beneficiaries' income, the results of variance analysis showed that there were significant differences among the allotments in terms of sustainability (F=9.44, p≤0.01). Overall, the results of this study clearly show that the rangeland ecological sustainability will be more important to the beneficiaries, having more livelihood and economic dependence on rangelands in terms of employment.

Keywords

Economy, Ecological Sustainability, Rangeland Health, Shahsavan Nomads

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