social network analysis

The Zagros forests, Iran’s second-largest natural forest ecosystem, are facing intense environmental pressures. Lorestan Province, covering 1,217,259 hectares (43% of the province’s land area), is a key region within this ecosystem. In recent years, climatic stressors such as rising temperatures, drought, and dust storms, coupled with socio-economic challenges like unemployment, poverty, and financial constraints, have posed significant obstacles to effective resource management. The heavy reliance of local communities on forests for fuel and livelihoods has further complicated decision-making in forest governance. Various stakeholders—including government agencies, private entities, and third-sector organizations—play a role in this management framework. To ensure efficient governance, it is crucial to identify and categorize these actors while analyzing their interactions. This study applies stakeholder analysis to examine the institutional landscape governing forest resources in Lorestan, highlighting the need for an integrated and coordinated management approach.

This study adopts a mixed-method approach, integrating both quantitative and qualitative analyses across three phases. The first phase focuses on stakeholder identification, employing semi-structured interviews, stakeholder mapping, and the snowball sampling method to pinpoint key institutions involved in forest resource management in Lorestan Province. The second phase involves stakeholder classification, utilizing a power-interest matrix to categorize them based on their influence and engagement. The third phase examines the communication networks among stakeholders, employing social network analysis to evaluate the nature and strength of their interactions.

The first phase identified 26 institutions engaged in managing Lorestan’s forest resources, including 24 governmental bodies, one private organization, and one public entity. The power-interest matrix revealed that the most influential stakeholders include the "General Directorate of Natural Resources and Watershed Management," "General Directorate of Environmental Protection," "Agricultural Jihad Organization," "Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Training Center," "Management and Planning Organization," "Governorate," "General Directorate of Nomadic Affairs," "Provincial Radio and Television Center," and the "Judiciary." These entities hold the highest levels of both authority and concern regarding forest management in the province. An analysis of network density and reciprocity indices indicated that only a subset of actors are interconnected, and stakeholder relationships within the network remain relatively weak compared to their potential. Many institutions have yet to fully leverage their organizational capacity to establish effective collaborative ties, and a significant proportion of existing connections are unidirectional. Furthermore, social network analysis revealed that some key stakeholders identified in the power-interest matrix have struggled to secure a central or influential position within the network, leaving them marginalized. Among these, the "Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Training Center of Lorestan," the "Governorate," the "General Directorate of Nomadic Affairs of Lorestan Province," and the "Provincial Radio and Television Center of Lorestan" stand out as particularly underrepresented.

The findings indicate that forest resource management in the studied region lacks a balanced distribution of participation and influence. Notably, only one private entity was identified and validated by stakeholders, with government institutions maintaining a dominant role in governance. However, global best practices emphasize the importance of private sector involvement through outsourcing, as well as the active participation of local communities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). From both economic and social sustainability perspectives, the current approach lacks long-term viability and adaptability. To address this imbalance, outsourcing certain forest management activities to the private sector could enhance efficiency and sustainability. Additionally, despite the critical role that local social institutions could play, their current numbers and influence remain inadequate. Encouraging the formation and expansion of community-based organizations—supported by capacity-building initiatives and training programs—could strengthen their role in decision-making and enhance their negotiating power within the forest management framework.

Effective and efficient implementation of rangeland improvement and rehabilitation programs using a participatory approach will raise issues and problems for policy makers and managers requiring a general approach to solve them. This type of management is often related to the pattern of social relations between ranchers in the structure of different management systems governing on rangelands. The purpose of this study is to analyze the social network of ranchers in terms of participation related to the implementation of rangeland activities and compare it in the management systems of private exploitation, collective and council in the Delarstaq rangelands of Amol. In this research, using a network analysis questionnaire and a direct interview, the link was examined between participation in the implementation of rangeland management plan. According to the research findings, the rates of density, reciprocity and transitivity indices in private exploitation management system are higher than collective and in common management system are higher than the council. However, the average geodetic distance index and network centrality indices in group management systems (collective and council) were higher than the private exploitation management system, which indicates less participation, cohesion and integration of the ranchers in group management systems. Therefore, considering the discovery of social gaps in the participatory network of group management systems, modifying the structural pattern of social relations in these systems before the implementation of the desired programs is one of the basic and necessary measurment for successful participatory management in these areas.

Forest management as one of the important source of production is crucial and critical. In taking over the forest resources as one of the most important of natural resources in the world, it is essential to consider local stakeholders to implement forest action plan for forest co-management. Therefore, this study aims at achieving to proper management of forests based on evaluating the stakeholder participations in management planning. For this purpose, social monitoring based on the relationship between local stakeholders was done and finally social network analysis was applied as an efficient tool in evaluating the relationships. In this study, quantitative and mathematical indicators of network analysis among all stakeholders in Kalak customary in Kojur region, Mazandaran province were investigated based on the trust and cooperation connections in local stakeholder network. The results showed that social cohesion and social capital in local stakeholder networks in this area are average to high level and sustainability of the network is strong. Furthermore, the result also revealed that there is medium correlation between trust and collaboration links in local stakeholders in the study area. According to the result, it could be concluded that maintenance and improvement of social trust will increase the social control and stakeholders will respect local traditions and rules in exploiting the forest resources.

Doing centralized and coherent activities between governmental agencies is essential at any level. Creating suitable institutional structure for appropriate solutions of policy problem in natural resources at multiple levels is possible using application of network governance. The aim of this paper is institutional network analysis with co-management of Zagros dry forests in regional (county) level. Quantitative approaches are used for this research which all relevant institutions of co-management has been questioned. Based on this research results, institutional cohesion is 43 percent (medium) and sustainability of institutional network is about 47 percent (medium) according reciprocity index. The network centrality is medium based on output links that can be concluded policy must be on reducing centrality on decision making for sustainable management in Zagros dry forests at regional level. Finally, it could be said that network analysis is a successful tool that can help manager and planner on effective.