مهسا تسلیمی

Forests are one of the complex ecosystems of natural resources with an important role in the environment and multiple production capacities and functions. The benefit of different human societies from these resources in various forms has various effects and consequences. Without accurate and complete identification of all its stakeholders, logical and acceptable results cannot be achieved in decision-making and policy-making. Therefore, it is essential to fully understand the stakeholders (actors) and their identification criteria in line with basic policies for planning, decision-making, and success in this field. Because decision-making in the management of forest resources always faces challenges and is often associated with complexity, immutability, and uncertainty due to the multi-purpose nature of the benefits and services of these resources, the difficulty of monetary valuation of ecological services, and the great diversity of the stakeholders of their services. Therefore, the stakeholders in the fields of natural resources and forests are considered vital components, and their presence and activity in these fields are undeniable and provide a guarantee of success in cooperative management for the protection of forests. The advancement of the sustainable management goals of natural resources and forests is realized by identifying an active presence of key actors and the most important and effective groups involved, i.e. forest producers and users, along with other identified stakeholders. The primary purpose of identifying those involved is the names of all those who can and should have a role in the planning and management process, and their identification is an important part of the participatory planning process because it is considered a part of the prerequisite for participation. Therefore, identifying and determining the stakeholders make it possible to take advantage of their cooperation in a planned way in the implementation and management of forestry projects and to facilitate the implementation process of the programs.

To identify, weight, and prioritize the stakeholders involved in the Hyrcanian forest ecosystem services using multi-criteria decision-making models, the stakeholders involved in the Hyrcanian forest ecosystem services were first identified and gathered based on the review of various studies. Then, the research questionnaire was designed to answer two important questions in this study: a) who are the people involved in Hyrcanian forest areas? and b) what is their priority? Therefore, the beneficiaries of the economy of Hyrcanian forests were identified by designing a questionnaire scored with a Likert scale, designing items with five priority options, and determining the individuals or groups of stakeholders. In this research, the opinions of 50 experts, academics, and experts of the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization at the provincial and regional levels were used to identify the beneficiaries of the ecosystem services of Hyrcanian forests. The questionnaire was validated and confirmed by experts, and its reliability was confirmed with a Cronbach's alpha statistic of α = 0.97. The stakeholders of the forest ecosystem services were weighted  with the Step-Wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method, the Simple Additive Weighting (SAW), and Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS), and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used to prioritize them.

By analyzing the findings of the questionnaire using experts' opinions, the Hyrcanian forest ecosystem goods and services stakeholders were identified in 19 groups and five levels, such as international, national, regional, stakeholders outside the forest, and stakeholders inside the forest. Based on the results of the weighting of the stakeholders using the SWARA technique, the forest dwellers and communities downstream of the forest edge are among the most important Hyrcanian forest ecosystem goods and services stakeholders with the highest weight, and other stakeholders were placed in the next priorities based on the received weight. The prioritization of the stakeholders of the goods and services of the Hyrcanian forest ecosystem in the TOPSIS, ARAS, and SAW models showed similar results in terms of the prioritization of the stakeholders of the surveyed services.

The results of stakeholder prioritization models were compared using the slope of the service weight curve (R2) in three models. The slope of the relative closeness curve of the weights in the ARAS model was a descending exponential function with an explanatory degree of 0.93, which indicated an obvious difference between the stakeholders of Hyrcanian forest ecosystem services. The slope of the curve of the relative closeness of the weights is higher and closer to one in the ARAS model than in the other two models from different points of view. Based on this result and the consensus of some experts, the prioritization of stakeholders in the ARAS model is closer to reality. Therefore, the ARAS model was proposed as a suitable model for prioritizing the stakeholders of Hyrcanian forest ecosystem services. According to the results of this model, forest dwellers, downstream communities on the edge of the forest, and the off-site users of the forests are considered the major stakeholders of Hyrcanian forest services. Therefore, the role, presence, and influence of these stakeholders cannot be ignored in the management of natural resources and the environment, especially in forestry projects, and it is recommended to optimally use the presence of these communities in cooperative forest management. Furthermore, the human relationship with the natural ecosystem should be at the top of policies and comprehensive management of forest resources. It is necessary to support wood planting projects through subsidy policies and to grant facilities and low-interest loans to forest dwellers and communities downstream of the forest edge. Other necessary measures include efforts to reduce deprivations and increase the socioeconomic development of the villages on the edge of the forest, holding training entrepreneurship courses and classes, introducing handicrafts and non-wood products, identifying target markets, and strengthening the marketing network for the export of non-wood products to increase the share of the forest in the growth and economic development of rural communities on the edge of the forest. Employment programs should also be developed for local communities in the forest protection sectors.

Today, the world is faced with an environmental emergency, and despite the fact that environmental concerns have increased in the last few decades, no environmental actions have been taken. Many believe that the solution to environmental crises should be sought in changing human behavior, attitude and way of life. Wildlife attitudes (whether positive or negative towards carnivores) affect the promotion of coexistence between humans and carnivores as well as conservation efforts. Therefore, this study examines the environmental attitude of the community in protecting the Asiatic Cheetah. The number of required questionnaires was determined using Cochran's formula and the required information and data were collected by completing 564 questionnaires from households in 31 provinces of the country in the winter of 2021. The results were analyzed using structural equations. The obtained results showed that ecological and economic variables have an effect on the environmental attitude of people to protect the Asiatic Cheetah. The non-significance and influence of the educational variable on people's environmental attitude towards the protection of the Asiatic Cheetah showed that the information of the people in the society about the proposed propositions was insufficient. Therefore, raising the level of awareness among people in the society, especially local communities in the vicinity of Asiatic Cheetah habitats, is necessary and very important. It can be useful to use the capacities and capabilities of media in order to promote environmental culture in order to protect the habitats of Cheetahs. Also, the characteristics of the animal habitat and the habitat of the Asiatic Cheetah species should be compiled in the textbooks of all provinces due to the importance and place of the Asian cheetah's heritage and existential value.

The Asiatic Cheetah is a carnivorous species that is currently the country's most important flag species and is regarded as a national and international symbol. The Asiatic Cheetah once roamed much of Asia, but now it only exists in Iran. It has attracted significant national and international conservation efforts and budgets over the last 20 years or so, and it is predicted that if effective conservation measures are not applied, this species will be extinct forever. The conservation value of Asiatic Cheetah in Iran was investigated by completing a questionnaire by households across the country, using the contingent valuation method and logit model.The findings revealed that education, price, participation in NGOs, and household income all influence people's willingness to pay for the Asiatic Cheetah's conservation. In addition, 58.90 percent of individuals are willing to pay for the Asiatic Cheetah's conservation, with an average willingness to pay of 62,051.157 Tomans per year. As a result, the government should pay at least 872,293,425,265.81 Tomans per year, equal to 37925801.09 dollars per year, and an average of 72691118772.15 Tomans per month, equal to 3160483.42 dollars to protect this valuable species through government institutions such as the Environmental Protection Organization, NGOs, individuals, and the participation of local communities and international organizations. The practical and executive framework of NGOs in the field of natural resources as environmental caregivers and spokespersons for the natural world is required by the role of people and grassroots organizations in natural areas, which includes culture building, information, and public participation.

As the population around the world increases, the demand for food and other goods increases. This demand is estimated with extensive production and use of natural resources, which leads to more environmental pollution. Along with other factors of production, energy plays a decisive role in the economic growth of countries and its importance continues to increase. Since a large part of the increase in demand for energy consumption is provided by fossil resources and their consumption leads to the emission of greenhouse gases and air pollution, it seems that economic growth in this way causes more environmental pollution. to be Although the emission of carbon dioxide gas has been closely linked with the growth of national income as one of the axes of the Human Development Index (HDI) in recent decades, it has destructive effects on other key measures of human development, such as life expectancy, because the destruction of the environment not only leads to an increase in the death rate, but also reduces the life expectancy in countries. When pollution and destruction cover the environment, the spread of various diseases and as a result the increase in mortality and the decrease in life expectancy will be obvious for that country and even its neighbors. Pollution sometimes produces such destructive effects that the residents of that area suffer from it and bear its effects for generations to come.Asian Productivity Organization (APO) including 18 member countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam), In line with the goal of participating in the socio-economic development of the member countries and improving the quality of life for the people of those countries through the promotion of productivity under the spirit of mutual cooperation among the member countries. Considering the rapid expansion of urban society and the dynamic growth of urbanization and its effect on the production of greenhouse gases as one of the most important factors of environmental pollution in different countries, there is an urgent need to fill the void in the relationship between life expectancy, economic growth, energy consumption and urbanization are revealed in the member countries of this organization. Also, according to the conducted surveys and the absence of similar studies, this study is probably the first to examine the amount of carbon dioxide emissions of APO member countries.

The estimation of the model in this study is based on panel data. The distinctive feature of this model is that it is simultaneously able to collect data in the form of time series and cross section and present their results together. Also, in these models, more statistical methods are available to the researcher and as a result, the estimation efficiency increases. This study has investigated air pollution with energy consumption, economic growth, urbanization and life expectancy by using the autoregression model with panel data distribution breaks (ARDL) during the period of 2000-2016. The advantage of using the ARDL method over other methods is that regardless of whether the variables in the model are of I(0) or I(1) type, it is possible to check the convergence relationship between the variables; Therefore, ARDL estimates are unbiased and efficient due to avoiding problems such as endogeneity and autocorrelation. Also, this method simultaneously estimates the long-term and short-term relationships between the dependent variable and other explanatory variables of the model.

Based on the results, the lowest amount of air pollution is related to Nepal and the highest amount is related to Singapore. Also, the countries of Mongolia and China had the lowest and the highest urban population among the studied countries, respectively. The lowest life expectancy is related to Cambodia and the highest life expectancy is related to Hong Kong. In estimating the model, the best interval is Panel ARDL (1,1,1,1,1). The variables of gross domestic product, energy consumption and urbanization have a positive relationship with air pollution, and the variable of life expectancy has a negative relationship with air pollution, which is in accordance with theoretical expectations. Based on this, a one percent increase in GDP in selected APO member countries leads to a 0.44 percent increase in air pollution;Likewise, a one percent increase in urbanization leads to a 0.38 percent increase in air pollution. Also, the results showed that, in the short term, error correction and energy consumption variables are significant at the level of one percent, and other variables are not significant in the short term. The coefficient of the error correction term indicates a significant long-term relationship between the variables of the model. This coefficient is significant at the probability level of one percent and its sign is negative, so it is expected that in each period, about 30% of the deviation of the short-term relationship will be adjusted towards the long-term coefficients. The results obtained from the long-term estimation of the model show that the increase in economic growth, energy consumption and urbanization leads to an increase in air pollution in APO member countries. Also, most of the investigated countries are less developed and developing countries. In addition, based on the results of life expectancy and air pollution, they have an inverse relationship, which is according to theoretical expectations; Because the increase in air pollution causes an increase in health costs, a decrease in the quality of the environment and, as a result, a decrease in life expectancy. Considering the conditions of climate change and the increase in the temperature of the earth, the increase in population and the economic conditions of the studied countries, it is suggested that the use of environmentally friendly technologies and equipment should be expanded in these countries with the cooperation of developed countries and the resources Renewable energy replaces fossil fuel sources to reduce environmental pollution. Moreover, Considering the positive and significant variable of economic growth in the emission of air pollution and considering that improving economic growth is one of the important goals of the economy, measures should be taken by policymakers so that economic growth causes the least damage to the environment.

The agricultural sector relies heavily on energy consumption to meet the growing need for food. One of the challenges of sustainable agriculture is that the majority of farmers still use fossil energy. Carbon dioxide emissions in Iran have caused $ 26.27 billion in damage to the country, of which $ 1.57 billion is the share of the agricultural sector. The final energy consumption per capita in Iran's agricultural sector is 3.3 times the global average. Therefore, energy use in the country is very important. This study prioritized renewable energies in the agricultural sector of the north of Iran (Golestan, Mazandaran, and Guilan) using the Entropy weighting technique and the TOPSIS method. The information required for this study was collected using a Delphi method from 39 experts and five types of renewable energy and five criteria. The results showed that the Prioritization of energies are solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy, hydropower, and geothermal energy and Environmental, political, social, technical and economic criteria rank first to fifth in importance, respectively.

Livestock activity in Mazandaran province has a significant share in employment and production of related products in the country. To achieve economic development, identifying the challenges and potentials for progress in this sector are important factors. The purpose of this study is to analyze the resources, activities and institutions of Mazandaran province with an economic approach to strengthen production and employment and find a suitable strategy to increase the employment and production of livestock in Mazandaran province.

in this study, by considering the production capabilities of livestock products in Mazandaran province, and using a SWOT analysis based on the AHP approach, the problems, and opportunities in the livestock sub-sector in Mazandaran province were identified and examined. To extract pairwise comparisons of internal and external factors, 15 experienced experts in the livestock subdivision of the Agricultural Jihad Organization and Departments of Mazandaran Province were interviewed in 2018. Finally, using the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) approach, strategies for developing this subsector were prioritized. Excel and GAMS software were used to estimate the results.

The results of SWOT analysis in the analysis of internal and external factors showed that to develop the livestock sub-sector in Mazandaran province, aggressive strategies can be useful. Also, the results of prioritizing strategies through the QSPM approach showed that according to the aggressive strategies in the livestock sub-sector, "export development and entry into global markets", "product and market development", " Creating facilities for the export of Caspian Sea littoral states " and " Modified breeds of livestock to increase production " with scores of 6.467, 6.147, 5.442 and 4.947, respectively, can be considered as strategies for developing production and employment in the livestock sub-sector of Mazandaran province .

According to the results of internal and external factors in SWOT analysis, the optimal strategy in livestock activity in Mazandaran province is the aggressive strategy of SO.  According to the results of this study, strategies such as development and promotion of traditional livestock to semi-industrial and industrial, reducing mediation and intermediation and regulating market by collecting accurate statistics and information sources, Modifying breeds of livestock, supporting exports especially exports to Caspian Sea littoral states, improving the quality and standard of processed products for sale in regional and trans-regional markets, recognizing the needs of target markets and Such cases are suggested.

The final energy consumption per capita in Iran in the agricultural sector is 3.4, as well for household sector is 2, besides the commercial and public sectors are 1.6, and transportation and industry are 1.4 times the global average. This is due to low efficiency in operation, high energy consumption, as well as the use of energy goods and services. The use of renewable energy in the agricultural sector, while increasing the security of energy supply, will reduce global warming, stimulate economic growth, create jobs, and increase per capita income and social justice and environmental protection in all areas. The purpose of this study is to investigate farmers' preferences for using solar energy in Sari. The Choice Experiment methods allow researchers to focus on valuing final changes as multidimensional features rather than discrete changes. Choosing between options encourages respondents to examine their preferences in detail related to different management programs. The Choice Experiment test approach consists of several steps, which include designing the Choice Experiment test, determining the sample size and method of data collection, estimation process, and modeling the Choice Experiment test. Designing a Choice Experiment test consists of five important steps which are defining attributes, determining the relevant levels, conducting an experimental design, constructing Choice sets, and measuring preferences. After determining the criteria affecting the prioritization of renewable energy, liketechnical, environmental, economic, social, and political criteria, in order to investigate the willingness to Pay of Sari farmers, a test questionnaire was designed. The criteria obtained from the review of prioritization of renewable energy were considered as the attributes of the Choice Experiment and the price attribute was added to the above criteria. A total of six technical, economic, social, political, environmental, and price attributes were considered to investigate farmers' willingness to pay. In the review of the studies and the current situation, the levels of each of the attributes were determined. To determine the levels of price attribute, these points were considered; the price of agricultural electricity per kilowatt-hour is 383 Rials, which was approximately 400 Rials for the current situation. To investigate the farmers' preferences for using solar energy, 98 questionnaires of farmers in Sari were completed in September 2019. Each questionnaire included 8 choice set cards and each card included three options, based on which, the number of observations in Sari is equal to 2352 observations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the preferences of farmers in Sari for the use of solar energy. For this purpose, the Multinomial logit, the Random parameter logit, the latent class, and the Random parameter logit latent class are used. Based on the results of the Multinomial logit method, environmental and price attributes at the level of one percent and economic attribute at the level of five percent are statistically significant, but political, social, and technical attributes are not statistically significant. The Alternative-specific Constants (ASC) in the first and second options are not statistically significant. Based on the results of the Random Parameter Logit estimation method, environmental, economic and price attributes are statistically significant at the level of one percent. Technical, political, and social attributes are not statistically significant, which shows that farmers do not make a significant difference between these two attributes. The Alternative-specific Constants (ASC) are significant in the first option at the level of five percent and the second option at the level of one percent. The results of latent class estimation show that in the first class, environmental, economic, political, social, and price attributes are statistically significant at the level of one percent and technical attribute at the level of ten percent. The Alternative-specific Constants (ASC) are statistically significant at the level of one percent in the first class. In the second class, technical attribute at the level of five percent and environmental attribute at the level of ten percent are significant, besides other attributes in the second class are not statistically significant. The most sensitive class is the first class and farmers of the second class are considered the base class. The results obtained from the Bayesian and Akaike criteria of different classes showed that the two classes have the lowest values of BIC and AIC criteria and the class is appropriate. After determining the appropriate class, the model was estimated. The results of model estimation were calculated by the Latent Class Random Parameter logit method. In the first class, environmental attributes and price are significant at the level of one percent and economical attributes at the level of five percent. Also, the Alternative-specific Constants (ASC) is significant at the level of one percent, but, in the second class, the attributes are not statistically significant. Technical, environmental, economic, political, social, and price attributes, as well as the option of status quo or the Alternative-specific Constants (ASC) in the second class, do not affect farmers' utility due to the lack of statistical significance. A comparison of the results obtained from the four methods shows that the highest value of the estimated coefficient for environmental attributes was in the latent class method and the lowest value was in the multinomial logit method; Comparison of fitted methods shows that the highest Log-likelihood is related to the latent class random parameter logit method and the lowest value is related to the multinomial logit method. Accordingly, the highest value of Akaike and Bayesian criteria is related to the multinomial logit method and the lowest value is related to the latent class random parameter logit method which is better than other methods according to the good fit criterion.

Organic farming is considered as one of the most important alternative agricultural systems for the production of healthy food without any chemicals. Thus, this study aimed at estimating the consumers’ willingness to pay for using the organic oranges by applying Choice Experiment (CE) method. The required data were collected through a designed and completed questionnaire in a random sampling method in Sari city of Iran. The results of the conditional logit model indicated that the consumers were willing to pay 32546.7 IR rials equal to 1.30 times more than the base price for the organic oranges; in addition, they were willing to pay for the label's organic feature more than the quality improvement of the environment. Similarly, increased awareness and income of consumers had a positive and significant effect on the willingness to pay for the organic oranges. Therefore, organizing the mechanism associated with the certification standard products for the organic products and supplying the organic products in appropriate packages to the market could be necessary for the public trust of these products.

The resistive economy, in the sense of managing the current situation in the country, minimizes the risks. In other words, establishment of the necessary institution in Iranian economy by using a set of policies, laws, and executive measures in such a way to minimize its risk against harmful shocks and disturbances, especially foreign and international ones, would provide the ground for the country to achieve sustainable economic progress. One of the most important methods in this regard, in creating the infrastructure of a resistive economy, is development of the agricultural sector. In fact, due to the distinctive features of the agricultural sector, this sector can be considered as the driving force of the economy within the framework of the resistive economy. To achieve such an economy, the challenges and potentials facing this sector must be identified while determining optimal investment for the basic sectors. Due to the capabilities of agricultural production in Mazandaran province, in this study, for identifying the problems and opportunities in the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture, a type of SWOT analysis was used in which relative weights are calculated through a linear mathematical programming model. Finally, by using the QSPM approach, prioritization strategies were developed for each subsector.

In the SWOT analysis, the AHP approach was used to extract the pairwise comparisons of internal and external factors from the opinions of the interviewed experts in the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture. SWOT analysis has been used to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and the combination of linear programming. Therefore, AHP approach is used to calculate the weight for criteria and alternatives at each level. In this research, a two-step linear programming method has been used to calculate the priority vector. In the first step, according to the pairwise comparison matrix, a formulation that provides a consistency limit is used. In the second step, according to the compatibility limits obtained in the previous step, for calculating marginal weights of the criteria, another linear programming model is used. After calculating the relative weights of each of the components of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well as determining some strategies, using expert opinions, the QSPM approach has been used to prioritize strategies. For this purpose, the attractiveness coefficients of each strategy were extracted according to the Swot components and by multiplying the attractiveness coefficients by the relative weights, the total score for each Swot component was calculated for each strategy and finally with the total score of the Swot components, a total score for each strategy was calculated. Finally, Excel and GAMS software were used to estimate the results.

According to the results of SWOT analysis in the agriculture and horticulture sector, among the important strengths in Mazandaran province, this subsector can be ranked first in the production of various products, variety of climatic conditions and suitable water resources, the existence of fertile and suitable lands and variety of products. In contrast to the above strengths, weaknesses such as traditional and small units of exploitation, lack of guaranteed purchase and non-payment of debts on time by the government and cooperatives, low irrigation efficiency and low productivity of inputs (land, labor, etc.), lack of proper marketing system and the weak role of the government are some of important challenges in the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture in Mazandaran province. The opportunities facing the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture include the existence of ports and export terminals, existence of suitable fields for the construction of processing industries, improvement and establishment of fruit and vegetable terminals, and the existence of agricultural sub-graduates. The most important factors that threaten the activity of subsectors of agriculture and horticulture are related to the problems of financing and bank interest rates, land-use change and land trade, excessive import of agricultural and horticultural products, and small number of related processing industries. The results of prioritizing strategies through the QSPM approach also showed that according to aggressive strategies, in the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture, strategies like "Increased aggressive racial reform research ", "Establishment of fruit and vegetable export terminals" and "Development of processing industries", in the subsector of livestock  strategies like "Export development and entry into global markets", "Product and market development", "Establishment of facilities for export to the Caspian littoral states" and "Improvement of livestock breeds to increase production" , and in the subsector of fisheries "Aquaculture Development", "Development of Fisheries Industry", "Private and public sector support and investment" and "Establishment of facilities for export to international markets" are among strategies for strengthening the economy of the province and the country that can be considered.

According to the results of this study, it is suggested that more attention in terms of capital support, and regional policies should be given to the subsectors of agriculture and horticulture in this situation. Also, appropriate measures should be taken to increase the productivity of the agricultural sector in line with the resistance economy. It is also suggested that solutions such as guaranteed purchase, providing facilities for small and job-creating projects, use of agricultural researchers and graduates for improving and implementing of racial reform research, support and development of processing industry of agricultural products, market development and increasing exports of agricultural products, should be used.

In recent decades, attention has been paid to the relationship between economic growth and its environmental impacts. The ecological footprint is an indicator that compares the rate of resource consumption and waste generation by humans with the rate of reproduction of resources and the disposal of waste by biofuels. The purpose of this study was to investigate the long-term and short-run relationship between per capita ecological footprints and GDP per capita variables, energy consumption, trade openness and financial development through the ARDL panel method during the period of 2013-1992 using data Panels of selected countries of Asia and Europe. The results show that there is a positive relationship between per capita ecological footprints and energy consumption, financial development and per capita gross domestic product, and open trade variables and second-generation GDP per capita are negatively correlated. Also, the results show that the Kuznets 'environmental hypothesis is inversely proportional to U and the existence of Kuznets' environmental curve is confirmed. Also, in each period, 59 percent of the imbalance is adjusted and approaches its long-term trend.

Desertification refers to the process of degradation of fragile and unsustainable ecosystems, which, due to the change in use or pressure on the land, is spreading through human intervention and ultimately leads to a reduction in biological production. In some parts of the world, with the expansion of deserts, food production is reduced and water resources are dried, as a result, populations move to other areas. Due to the limited capacity of cities to provide facilities and services, these migrations will have serious socio-economic problems. In this study, the long-run and short-run relationship between desertification variables, GDP, agricultural area, forest area, average annual precipitation, investments made to deal with desertification in the form of Kuznets environmental hypothesis and using ARDL PANEL Distribution determining model for agricultural province with Iranian destructs (Tehran, Khorasan, Kerman, Yazd, Isfahan, Sistan and Baluchestan And Semnan) have been investigated. The results showed that the inverse U-shape of the Kuznets environmental hypothesis in the studied provinces was confirmed in the long run.

Economic activities have a wide range of environmental impacts such as forest degradation, Surface and underground water pollution and air pollution. Mazandaran province of Iran is very rich in surface and underground water and has many rivers due to its natural characteristics. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between water pollution and economic growth in this province within the framework of Kuznets' environmental curve using panel data and generalized method of moments (GMM) during 2001-2014. The study results showed that the water pollution index was positively correlated with urbanization variable, GDP and its cubes and had a negative relation to GDP squared. The results also showed an N-shaped relationship between the water pollution and other variables. Positive third-rate gross domestic product (GDP) indicated an increase in the water pollution associated with economic development, which suggested that the government should make the necessary decisions to prevent further contamination.

In today’s traditional agriculture and trade, it may not be possible to increase yields per hectare without applying some types of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. By producing 950 thousand tons of rice Mazandaran province supplies 42% of rice of the country. In the internal and external studies, it has been dealt with the study of entering nitrate into water technically. According to the destructive effects of nitrogen water-soluble on health and to the fact that Mazandaran province is the main producer of rice in Iran and applying the fertilizers containing nitrate is common in rice cultivation; the purpose of this study was to examine the effective factors on the entrance of nitrate into groundwater in cultivating rice in Sari. The aim of the present study is also to examine the effective factors on absorption pure nitrogen in the water used to cultivate rice.
The dependent variable in this study indicates the amount of pure nitrogen used water by i th farmer that has been divided into three categories. Calculating the dependent variable is such that the total amount of urea consumed by farmer is obtained by interview with farmers, the dependent variable of the amount of Nitrate pollution used groundwater was divided into three classes of low, medium and high. Considering such studies and the nature of dependent variable of the present study, that is as ordered discrete, the best model to respond the research objective is to use logit ordered pattern, but if the parallel regression assumption has not been considered, the advanced generalized ordered logit pattern should be used. In generalized ordered logit, the estimating parameters of independent variables that have rejected the assumption of parallel regression, cannot be same for different groups or levels. In other words, each level not only has separate intercept but also different coefficients. In order to select the samples, simple random sampling method has been used. Data used in this section has been collected by survey research method in 2015 for Sari. In order to determine the sample size, a pre-study has been conducted based on Cochran relation. The sample size of farmers’ was set at 98 farmers but finally 106 questionnaires were completed. Estimating the model and their results were conducted through Stata v.12 software.
According to the results, the dependent variable has been divided into three groups. About 43% of rice producers are the farms who used a moderate amount of nitrate into water, but 64% of them used medium and high amount of nitrate pollution that should be noticed. The results of parallel regression test for individual independent variables showed that among 17 independent variables, seven variables have been violated the condition of parallel regression. Therefore, the generalized ordered logit model was used. The variable income that has not been violated the assumption of parallel regression, has the coefficient of 0.83 in the first and second groups, that has been significant at the level of 10%. It means that, by increasing the level of farmers’ income and stability of other conditions, the possibility that the farmer will be in the group with more pollution will increase. As expected, the significant variable such as applying animal fertilizer, paying water expenses and agreement with omitting subsidy have negative and significant effect on the amount of nitrate used water. In other words, by increase in each variable, the possibility of placing farmers in the group of more pollution decreases. If farmers’ income increases as one unit, the possibility of placing the farmer in the group of low pollution decreases 0.2 unit and placing in the group of high pollution increases 0.17 unit. Being familiar with cultivating organic production will increases the possibility of placing the farmer in the group of low pollution in 0.55 unit, while the possibility of placing in the group with high pollution increase in less amount. On the other hand, the more positive attitude in rice cultivator towards supportive and public organization, the possibility of their placing in the group of low pollution of Nitrate decreases 0.13 units and the possibility of their placement in the group of high pollution on Nitrate increases 0.11 units.
Based on the obtained results and coefficient for every level of dependent variable, entrance of Nitrate in to groundwater in cultivating rice in Sari and interpreting the final effects of significant variables, the recommendations are offered for optimal utilization of fertilizers containing Nitrate and improving health of groundwater in cultivating rice as follows According to the factors effective on income and this variable that cultivating rice could not afford life express of 77% of the surveyed people, public supportive, private and insurance organizations should pay specific attention to this significant and important section. Revising supportive policies of the supportive public and private organizations for rice cultivators can be effective so that the policy making should have been lead into facilitate solving production and improving the farmers’ income than subsidiary supports of fertilizers. Revising in owner share and share on transaction under the supervision organs of agriculture are recommended. Of course income support and facilitating the sales of owner farmer can avoid renting the farm. Applying natural fertilizers and being familiar with cultivating organic and healthy products, have placed the rice cultivator in the level of minimum usage of chemical fertilizer as well as nitrate entrance into groundwater. Therefore, promoting, advertising and encouraging farmers to cultivate organic can be a strategy accompanied with financial and security incentive and finally, it is recommended to design and perform efficient policy making of water market in Mazandaran province to approach the real price of water.

Inflation rate in Iran has been a growing concern despite the intense struggles, gradually becoming the country’s economic problem. This study investigated the influence of inflation uncertainty on priceindexes of agricultural products using time series data of 1974-2007. The inflation uncertainty is estimated applying GARCH models. The desired model was evaluated by vector autoregression(VAR). Impulse response functions (IRF) and variance decomposition has also been checked. Impulse response functions in the agricultural sector against shocks from factors of value-added agriculture, degree of trade freedom, real exchange rate, the volume of liquidity, inflation uncertainty and the consumer price index to price index of agricultural products during ten periods in the future were examined.The variance decomposition results indicated that the agricultural sector in the short-term, mid-term and long-term, more volatility prices of agricultural products are explained by shocks. Results also revealed that from the VAR test in the agricultural sector indicated that inflation uncertainty together with other variables positively and significantly affects the price index of agricultural products. Thus, this variable should be taken to account in order to analyze price behavior of agricultural products and their determinants.