The effect of socioeconomic factors on vegetation cover changes in Dena protected area

Arameshenia, P.; Moradi, Gh.; Moradi, M.; Moradi Dashtpagerdi, Mostafa

doi:10.22034/ijf.2024.464075.1992

The effect of socioeconomic factors on vegetation cover changes in Dena protected area

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

P. Arameshenia ¹

Gh. Moradi ²

M. Moradi ³

Mostafa Moradi Dashtpagerdi ⁴

¹ MSc Graduated, Dept .of Environment Sciences, School of Natural Resources & Desert Studies, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.

² Associate Prof., Dept. of Environment Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources and Desertology, Yazd University, Iran.

³ Associate Prof. Dept. of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, Behbahan Khatam Alanbia University of Technology, Iran.

⁴ Ph.D. Graduated, Dept. of Watershed Management Engineering, Faculty of Natural Resources, Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, Mazandaran, Iran

10.22034/ijf.2024.464075.1992

Abstract

Introduction: Forest ecosystems, especialy in protected areas, have high environmental importance. On the other hand, the vegetation of Dena protected area is facing many socioeconomic problems from the local communities, which is always caused decreasing in quantity and quality. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the relationship between vegetation changes over time and the economic and social factors of the villages in Dena protected area.
Materials and methods: To carry out this research, 384 questionnaires were completed by the villagers in nine villages. To obtain the sample size, Cochran's formula was used, and the opinions of professors and experts were used to check the validity of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha method was also used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. In order to analyze the data, the villages were clustered economicaly and socialy based on the K-means algorithm. Afterward, the changes in forest surface were estimated using Landsat satellite images, and then the relationship between vegetation cover changes in the villages of different clusters was investigated using Spearman's test.
Results: According to the results of satellite images, the average change in the area of forests, which was 618.38 hectares in 2001, has decreased to 578.32 hectares in 2021, and on the other hand, the average area of agricultural land, which was 247.10 hectares in 2001, increased to 277.96 hectares in 2021. According to the results of Spearman's test, the changes in forest cover have a significant relationship with the economic issues of the studied villages (P<0.05), on the other hand, the social issues of the villages do not have a significant effect on the changes in vegetation cover.
Conclusion: According to the results of the Spearman test, there is a strong and significant relationship between the economic problems of the villagers and changes in vegetation. Economic factors in the clustered villages, such as income from agriculture and horticulture, income from livestock farming and forest products, land-use conversion of forests and rangelands, and various sectoral expenses, have led to extensive degradation of forests and rangelands in the vicinity of these villages.

Keywords

Destruction of natural resources

Economic situation

Social issues

Vegetation changes

Zagros forests

Subjects

Socioeconomic Issues in Forest Management

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