Investigation on dimensions of people's participation in Watershed Management Programs;using factor analysis

During the last years land and water resources in Iran have suffered severe degradation. In this regard government of Iran has established several policies to Sustainable Management of Land and Water Resources during the last years. Most of these efforts have taken top down strategy. Watershed management program (WMP) is one of the current approaches to sustainable management of land and water resources in Iran. It was started at the time of third Iranian 5th socio economic and cultural development plan as a strategy to land and water resources development. In recent year’s government has developed participatory approach in watershed management in several areas. Hable-Rud program is one of these programs to sustainable management of land and water resources in Iran which is initiated as a joint program of UNDP and Islamic Republic of Iran in 1997. The data for this study were gathered from 200 respondents through personal interview. Descriptive analysis and factor analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings of study showed that level of participation in program was moderate. Results of study also showed that dimensions of people participation in watershed management programs were in three factors namely social, economical and environmental however people preferred more involvement in social rather than economical and environmental activities. Data analysis discovered that these factors explained 60% of the variation of participation.