Toward co-management of Iran's rangelands: Combining stakeholder analysis and social networks analysis

The main feature of common pool resources, particularly rangelands, is the presence of different stakeholders in them with conflicting goals, values, and interests. Conflict among stakeholders, other than competition over rangeland exploitation and ecosystem destruction, is a big challenge in the effective management of rangeland conservation. To determine different stakeholders, their position, and their relationships in the rangelands co-management process, the current study attempts to combine stakeholder analysis and social network analysis. Therefore, a combined approach including interview and survey was used for data collection. First, the stakeholders who were involved in the rangelands' exploitation and management were identified. The identified stakeholders in this study consisted of 48 governmental and non-governmental organizations in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Later, the characteristics of different stakeholders, including the amount of power, interests, knowledge, information sharing, and their satisfaction in the rangelands' exploitation and management were analyzed; afterwards, the structure of the social network (conflict and participation relations) among the stakeholders was examined. It was found that in the rangelands exploitation and management, the conflict among stakeholders was relatively higher than the participation among them. The results of the study present valuable information to managers who attempt to enhance stakeholder participation, while avoiding or mitigating conflict.