Investigating the effect of climate change on pastures using local knowledge of farmers (a case study of pastures in the mountainous areas of Middle Alborz)

The evaluation of rangelands needs some studies about the physical effects and climatic factors on the changes of rangelands during different years. Evaluating changes in crown cover, plant composition, production rate, status, capacity and trend of rangelands during different years is very important. beneficiaries are often faced with unpredictable climate and natural condition changings, which rangelands of this group of experimental farmers is necessary for sustainable management and ecological health. The goals of this research are to investigate the understanding of climate change from the point of view of farmers in Rineh, Polour, Kangarchal and Poshtkoh regions in Mazandaran province. And its effect is on the beneficiary’s efforts and it will provide suggestions to reduce the effect of climate change and increase production of rangelands. In this regard, some questions were formulated and asked to the local users through a questionnaire, and SPSS software was used to determine users' opinions and compare their views in four sites. Also, four index including plants, herbal production, rangeland’s ecosystem (situation, soil and wild life), livestock and grazing systems, herd management and livelihood system were evaluated in four sites. The results of the average comparison showed that a large number of operators, about 41.7% believe that climate change which has occurred in these sites are happened in recent years. Also, the reduction of snowfall, the production of rangelands, the number of livestock shows that 37.7% of the respondents agree with the increases of immigration. For this purpose, in order to reduce the negative effects of climate changes are essential for a comprehensive education, proper planning and providing financial services and implementing plans for the proper use of water resources to deal with climate changes.