Study of Grazing Management Conflicts in Protected Areas: A Case Study of Bahram-e Goor Protected Area, Iran

Abstract

Protected areas have emerged as one of the most important and effective tools in the world for biodiversity conservation. Changing the use of natural lands, especially rangelands to protected areas, causes livestock grazing to be restricted in some of the grazing lands. These restrictions cause conflict between different natural land stakeholders. This study investigates the grazing management conflicts in the Bahram-e Goor protected area in Iran. In the first stage of the study, in order to investigate the existing conflicts, interviews were conducted with various stakeholders. The sampling method is classification, optimum allocation and targeted sampling method and the statistical population size is obtained from snowball method. The tool used for data collection was questionnaire and SPSS and Gephi software were used for statistical analysis of data.  In general, the results of this study show the conflict between the three stakeholders of the Department of Environment, the Department of Natural Resources and herder more than others, that the number of conflicts related to the Department of Environment and the herder is more than others. Based on the findings of this study, in order to resolve key and important conflicts, planning can be done by the management of natural resources and protected areas.