Assessment and analysis of effective factors on firewood and charcoal smuggling in local communities of the central Zagros, Ilam Province

Approximately, 30 percent of rural residents of Ilam County and Holeilan division are engaged in smuggling firewood and preparing charcoal alongside agricultural and livestock activities. Such activities of smuggling firewood and preparing charcoal are the main causes of the cutting of trees and deforestation in these areas. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting firewood smuggling and charcoal production in the local communities of Ilam County and Holeilan district and to survey the status of charcoal in the livelihood and income of the villagers in the study area. In this study, the data were collected through a library study and a questionnaire. In the interview section, the attitudes and factors affecting charcoal production were investigated by directly communicating with the studied households. According to the results of factor analysis and examination of items (variables) related to each factor and their factor loadings, three economic-social, legal, and cultural-social factors were identified. The results of factor analysis showed that the first factor (socio-economic) with a specific value of 7.45 had the highest share (62.15%) and the third factor (socio-cultural) with a specific value of 1.15 had the lowest share (9.63%) in total variance explanation. The results of the investigations regarding the status of coal mining in the livelihood system of the studied households showed that each charcoal mining household in the area of Ilam city had 10,800,000 Rials and in Helilan district 11,400,000 Rials on average from the sale of coal in 2019.