Determining the effective determinants of rangeland performance using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP); case study of range manager community in the winter pastures of Semnan province

One of the conventional methods in identifying issues or making decisions in communities is considering the views of individuals of the community. The aim of this research is to determine the effective determinants of rangeland performance according to the views of range manager community in winter pastures of the Semnan province. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a multi-criteria/quantitative approach was employed for this research. Firstly, determinants of rangeland performance were grouped into human (economic and social) and natural (topographic conditions, climatology, geology and soils) criteria. Then, the major sub-criteria were identified based on interviews, existing experiences and literature review. Pairwise Comparison of all identified criteria and sub-criteria were conducted based on semi-structured questionnaire and interviews with 30 range managers. Finally, analysis of questionnaires was carried out using AHP method within Expert choice software. According to results, season, precipitation and private ownership seem to be the most important factors, respectively. However, research community had more disagreements regarding the natural criteria compared to human ones.