Social network analysis and structural scheme of social relation among rangeland stakeholders (Case study: Takor village, Noor)

Regarding to the importance of rangelands in ecosystem maintenance, investigating the effective factors for rangeland conservation and development toward sustainability is vital. Pressure on natural resources for utilization purposes are resulted in increasing environmental degradation and conflicts as well as decreasing local stakeholder's participation. In recent decades, social aspects in natural resources governance especially application of social networks for facilitating successful participatory management are emphasized. In this research with the aim of recognizing challenges and handicaps of planning and implementation of successful rangeland participatory management, analysis of trust and collaboration networks among stakeholders of Takor village, Noor, Mazandaran Province was investigated. In this study, Social Network Analysis using UCINET Software was used to evaluate three important indicators including density, whole network centrality, and reciprocity at macro scale and core-periphery at median scale. According to the results, core and marginal actors which indicate stakeholder's network based on trust and collaboration links have middle to high sustainability and middle to low cohesion. Therefore, it is recommended to apply Social Network Analysis as a new approach for rangeland participatory management and create rangeland co-management information system, using monitoring and evaluation of indices and indicators.