سلیمان محمدی لیمائی

Prticipatory forest management, as a model for sustainable forest development, prepares local people to play an effective role in their fate and helps them  participate in the process of sustainable forest development. The aim of this research is to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of forest resource management in Qazvin Province from an economic and social points of view to provide and prioritize suitable management strategies.

This research was carried out in the Tarem-Sofla section of Qazvin city. The social fabric of the region is rural-nomadic and the main occupation of the residents of this area is agriculture and animal husbandry. Required data was collected by field studies and questionnaires. In order to determine SWOT elements and identify strategies, 50 questionnaires were completed and reviewed by experts. In the next step, AHP technique was used to prioritize strategies.

Results indicated that six strengths, six weaknesses, seven opportunities and seven threats were identified for managing these forests. According to on the results of the SWOT matrix, the most important of strengths of forest management in the region include soil conservation and prevention of erosion, the most important of opportunities include economic stability, improving and diversifying the livelihood of dependent communities, the most important of weaknesses include weak enforcement of laws, policies, and strategies, and the most important  threats include  reducing the level of forests. The final prioritization of SWOT factors showed that opportunities have priority in this analysis, with economic stability, improvement, and diversification of the livelihoods of dependent communities, and participatory forestry having final weights of 0.166 and 0.109, respectively. The prioritization of strategies based on the AHP showed that program-based management with stakeholder participation, with a relative weight of 0.252, has priority over other strategies.

As a result, managing with an attitude toward planning with the participation of stakeholders was introduced as a solution to achieve the sustainable forest management considering  the current conditions of forest management in these areas.

To express the role and importance of the environment and convert it to monetary values, these resources need to be valued using appropriate methods. Environmental attitude is a crucial factor in improving the description and prediction of economic models. The new environmental paradigm (NEP) is the most widely used measure of environmental attitude among the variables used in contingent valuation and willingness to pay. This study aims to estimate the recreational value and willingness to pay of tourists, considering the new environmental paradigm in the Helen Protected Forest, located in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, Iran, using the contingent valuation method.

This study examines the visitor population of the Helen Protected Forest. To estimate the sample size, a pre-questionnaire was designed and completed by the tourists to determine the variance of the trait under investigation. The number of 230 samples was determined using Cochran’s formula and the information obtained from the pre-questionnaire. The contingent valuation method was applied to assess the willingness of forest tourists to pay, using the Double-bounded Dichotomous Choice questionnaire. In this method, the estimated value is determined based on the conditions of a hypothetical market. Additionally, to investigate environmental attitude, the new environmental paradigm questionnaire was used. This questionnaire contains 15 items in the form of a Likert scale. The required statistics and information were collected through random sampling on different days of the week in different seasons of 2022 with face-to-face interviews of visitors from the mentioned area. In the contingent valuation method, the logit regression model was used to investigate the effect of explanatory variables on visitors’ willingness to pay, and the parameters of this model were estimated based on the maximum likelihood method. Furthermore, using the truncated average willingness to pay, the visitors’ willingness to pay was calculated. For data analysis and estimation of the logit regression economic model, as well as for statistical analysis, the software packages Shazam and Excel were employed.

The results showed that 83.04% of visitors are willing to pay for recreational use of the Helen Protected Forest. The logit model indicated that the variables of the proposed amount and the number of annual visits have negative effects, while the variable of the new environmental paradigm has a positive and significant effect on people’s willingness to pay. The willingness of men and native people of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province to pay was significantly higher than that of women and non-native people. The variables of age, education, and income have positive and significant effects on people’s willingness to pay. The environmental statement (Ethics and Consequentialist) showed that the average willingness to pay of ethics people was higher than that of consequentialist people. The contingent valuation method estimated an average WTP of 199,793 IR Rials per household per visit and 519,461.8 IR Rials annually per family. The total annual recreation value for the Helen Protected Forest was estimated at 2,374,683,2564 IR Rials. Significantly, visitors’ environmental attitude emerged as a key factor influencing WTP. Analysis of the NEP scale revealed the highest average score (4.28) for the item “Plants and animals have as much right as humans to exist,” suggesting that visitors recognize the intrinsic value of nature.

The use of the new environmental paradigm, along with socio-economic variables, is one of the most important factors affecting people’s willingness to pay for recreational use of Helen Protected Forest. The high percentage of willingness to pay for using the recreation service of this forest is promising from a management perspective. These results indicate the possibility of expanding recreational services, which may consequently increase economic, social, and cultural development. Additionally, the findings from this research can help adopt a suitable pricing policy to protect the natural resources of Helen Forest.

The concept of "breathing the forest" in Iran was first proposed by the Environmental Protection Organization in the early 80s. Specialists in biological sciences believe that by implementing this plan, the lost parts of the forests can be restored.They say that the forests of the north need a 10-year rest period during which the industrial exploitation of the forests in this area should be stopped and managed with full supervision. On the other hand, the opponents of this idea believe that abandoning the forest under any title is contrary to conservation. From the point of view of this group, the implementation of the plan to stop exploitation means the closure of forestry projects, while they believe that forestry projects are a tool for managing forest areas.

The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the plan in question from the point of view of different stakeholders such as natural resources departments, environmental departments, and the forest dwellers have been successful or not after several years of the implementation of the plan to stop exploitation in the forests of the north of the country. In this research, data on the amount of wood smuggling, the number of land use changes and encroachment on forest areas, the number of fires, and also the amount of wood supply to the wood and paper industries of Gilan province during the two periods before the plan to stop exploitation and after the implementation of the plan to stop exploitation were collected from the General Directorate of Natural Resources of Gilan Province. Then, the data were analyzed using the comparison of averages (t-test) in SPSS software version 26.

The results showed that the plan to stop exploitation in some cases shows a significant difference based on the reduction of damage such as cases of destruction and seizure of national lands, slashing and burning, cutting saplings, and the release of national lands shows a noticeable change (P- Value≤0.5. Also, the results of this research indicated that this project did not cause a significant difference compared to the past in terms of tree and shrub cutting, firewood and wood discoveries, and the number and area of fires (P-Value≥0.5). It can be stated that based on the studies and using the background of the research, the criteria in a questionnaire were provided to the forest science and engineering experts and they were given points according to the opinion of the experts and the main factors that were above 80 % had obtained the highest score and were identified as the main effective indicators. Regarding the second question of the research, it can be said that the secondary factors were extracted from the library sources and past research background according to the main factors, and they were given points according to the opinion of the experts, and the factors that were above 80% received the highest score andwere identified as influential indicators.

This research is particularly important from the point of view of creating a perspective for decision-making for managers in the field of forest management because it examines the effectiveness of plans and decisions, and this process can be repeated periodically to help decision-making. Finally, with the implementation of the forest rest plan, any harvesting of the forest will be stopped within 10 years, with the justification that the forest can repair the damage caused by illegal harvesting during this time. What is the main content of this idea or demand is to stop wood exploitation in the form of existing forestry plans. However, what adds to the importance of this issue is that if people who are not experts in forestry introduce a solution, it is rejected from a scientific point of view. We give the right environmentalists and those who sympathize with the forest to shout that the state of the forest is not good, but it is the responsibility of the forest experts to provide the solution. Since forest management covers a wide range of economic, social, ecological, and employment issues, this issue should be dealt with more sensitively and all aspects should be taken into account in this respect. Using the opinion of experts in this field and determining the desired hierarchy, criteria, and indicators in this regard can be a good solution for this problem. In order to achieve sustainable management, it is necessary to extract and examine the opinions of experts. The results of this research, which were taken from the experts and experts in the forest field, also showed that considering all the criteria and indicators, from their point of view, any plan in the forest with the names of rest and breathing does not have a scientific basis, and a revision in this field is necessary. Although all the experts have acknowledged the existence of disadvantages in the existing plans, they have considered the solution to be updating and fixing the disadvantages of the current plans.

The purpose of this study was to measure the relative efficiency of forest harvesting processing companies in Guilan province by considering pollution as an undesirable output. For this purpose, data envelopment analysis (DEA) method was used to evaluate the efficiency. In order to conduct this research, data from 12 forest harvesting companies in Guilan province were collected during 10-year period (2007-2016). First, the variable reduction method was used to reduce the indicators and then the units were ranked using the super-efficiency method. The results show that due to the importance of undesirable output, a number of companies have good ranks in terms of efficiency despite their high adverse undesirable output (air pollution) are in a good position in terms of efficiency (Iran Wood Coating Company and Layl Forest Cooperative). Due to the existence of undesirable output (air pollution) in forest exploitation companies, it is possible to improve the performance of companies with high efficiency along with undesirable output by reducing the amount of pollution.

The aim of this research is to determine the optimal stock level in Hyrcanian forest of Iran. In this study, a goal programming techniques was used in order to estimate the optimal stock level of different tree species considering economics, environmental and social issues. Multiple objectives in the process of decision making were considered to maximize the net present value, carbon sequestration and labor. Regression analysis was used to develop a forest growth model. In addition, an allometric function was used to determine the amount of carbon sequestration. Expected mean price is estimated using wood price and variable harvesting costs to determine the net present value of forest harvesting. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process is applied to determine the weights of goals using questionnaires filled by experts in order to determine the optimal stock level. Results showed that the optimal volumes were 256.2 m3⋅ha-1, 61.2 m3⋅ha-1, 38.8 m3⋅ha-1, 20.4 m3⋅ha-1 for, and 20.4 m3⋅ha-1 for beech, hornbeam, oak, alder and the other species, respectively. Furthermore, the results indicated that the total optimal volume is 397.005 m3⋅ha-1.

This research considers the optimal rotation age regarding to the carbon sequestration value in populous deltoides plantation in Choobar located in Guilan Province, north of Iran. First, the volume increment is determined by stem analysis method and carbon sequestration is determined by combustion in an electric oven. Then, Net present value (NPV) of carbon is calculated by using volume increment, carbon amount, interest rate, adjusted price of carbon and net revenue in order to determine the optimal rotation age. Faustmann model was used in order to determine the optimal rotation age. Data such as volume increment, carbon content, revenue, timber and carbon prices are used to estimate the NPV. The study also evaluates the effects of different cost of plantation and discount rates on the optimal rotation ages using NPV approach. Results showed that when economic value of carbon sequestration is considered, optimal rotation ages is 27 years. Sensitivity analysis is done for interest rate, cost of plantation, and carbon price. As cost of plantation increases, the optimal rotation age also increases and the net present value decreases. With the increase in carbon prices, the age of optimal rotation age decreases and the net present value increases.

The aim of present study was to determining the Economically Optimal utilization Age of Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda) in Guilan Province.

For this purpose, growth data and the price of Tada pine wood were used. Regression analysis was used to determine the best model of Teda pine growth.

The results showed that the best relationship between volume growth per hectare and age of a growth model is a few third degree sentences. The equation for the price of Teda pine trunks was reduced using its model. Due to the lack of significance of this relationship at the level of 0.05, the average price of standing wood was used in different years. According to the price, annual growth and bank interest rate, the optimal age of Teda pine was obtained according to technical and economic criteria.

Results showed that economically optimum utilization age of Teda pine changes with different discount rates, optimal rotation age follow different trend.