The Role of Key Stakeholders in Management of Urmia Lake Southern Satelite Wetlands

The ecosystem-based approach has been accepted in Iran as a holistic way of wetlands management which is based on public participation and collaboration among different stakeholders that can affect and are impacted by wetlands basin. Surveys on the level of communication and interactions among these stakeholders have gotten very little attention in the existing literature, yet, are necessary and crucial for understanding the current situation of the region. This study aims to identify the key stakeholders and the level of their participation and cooperation in the sustainable use of satellite wetlands in the southern Urmia lake basin. For this purpose, after identifying the key stakeholders using the snowball sampling method and interviewing the stakeholders and activists effective on the protection and restoration of the wetland, the data was collected using interview tools and questionnaires, and the cooperation network matrix was formed. Then, the data was analyzed in UCINET software using the indices of in-degree, out-degree and betweenness centrality. The results of the research show that governmental organizations such as jahade keshavarzi, regional water company and urban water and sewage compared to other stakeholders, it has the most control and power in the organizational cooperation network and in contrast to civil society organizations, such as non-governmental organizations, farmers' organizations have the lowest in-degree centrality. Improper power and influence of NGOs and the local community in the stakeholder collaboration network could be a symptom of the dominant centralized, top-down, and hierarchical planning system in the watershed and wetlands resource management in this region.