The establishment of rational balance between number of users and productivity capacity of rangelands and suitable number of the folk in the ranch units is one of the necessities of the sustainable management of rangelands. Also growth and efficiency of the productive factor would lead to the economical benefit maximum. This study was done in order to evaluate the optimal ranch size basis on the social and economical relative sustainability in the rangelands of Urmiya. The statistical information were derived from 203 questionnaire collected from 34 rangeland ranch units in the study area at the year of 2007-2008. Then the costs, incomes and grazing capacity were evaluated in each unit. The suitable number of folk and optimal ranch size were determined based on some criteria such as Total Efficiency Index. Productivity factors and annual costs of family were analyzed using Eviews economic software. The results showed that ranch size per a rancher is not optimal and each productivity unit has used from the rangeland less than optimal limit. At present, utilizable rangeland average per a user is 71 ha. Also the suitable minimum size of folk and rangeland per a family including 5 members is 550 and 350 ha, respectively. So it is able to supply the annual costs of family. Also economically suitable folk number and optimal ranch size were determined 667 and 297 ha, respectively. Therefore we can totally conclude that the folk size of 300 to 350 is a suitable size, either with respect to efficiency of production factors livelihood or preparing of the livelihood per a family unit, which completely depends on the ranching in the region.

Northern watershed of Kouhrang River with the area of 68437 hectares is located in northwestern Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiary province within 49 54 to 50 9 E longitude and 32 83 to 32 36 N latitude.Making a balance and equilibrium between the number of ranchers, the rangeland production potential and appropriate flock size in each utilization unit is a necessary task. It is a matter of importance to determine suitable ranch size based on pastoral household but suitable household livelihood as well. The main goal of this study is to determine utilization unit size based on ecologic and socioeconomic factors for each household. Along with detecting the ranch allotments, the range capacity and its productivity potential were studied. Then, based on expenses and the revenues resulting from herdship,(on ranges), the suitable flock size for fulfillment of the household expenses regarding the range utilization periods, the suitable range size per household was determined. 10 vegetation types with 0.91 AUM per hectares grazing capacity were detected in studied area. There are 46 range allotments and some parts of other 6 range allotments in studied area with average area at 1510 hectares. Average pastoral household is 36.8 per unit range allotments. Pastoral households share at rangelands is 41 hectares now. The minimum and suitable ranch area for each pastoral household which can provide annual needs and costs is 520 hectares and 142 animal unit at a mix flock at 3 to 2 ratio of sheep to goat for a 100 – dayes grazing season. The result of this study showed that production potential at each range unit is influenced by flock size, household share on farming lands, and the household numbers on each ranch unit. Ranch unit and the livelihood level, have significant influence at 5% level on suitable ranch size per household.

Managing ranch units has been one of the important issues during the last decades in studying the rangeland of Iran. The most noticeable system for range management based on grazing licene is one of the three types of council، collective and private exploitation. One of the implementing methods concerning the balance between livestock and range and reduction of range degradation is the introduction of reasonable range utility units. The present study seeks to compare different ownership types with considering independent variables of rangeland condition، exploitation and the capability degree of collective and private ownership so as to introduce the most appropriate method for user's inclination and better quality. According to goals and assumptions، 105 questionnaires were completed through direct interview with exploiters (only those who owned grazing licene). The state of the rangeland in 41sample ranges was calculated through 4 factories. The results showed the condition of private rangeland has been obtained to be better than the collective rangelands، however، no meaningful difference in rangelands management methods in this type of possession. Because of improper exploitation methods in this county، council exploitation is not suggested. Despite its probable weaknesses, the collective possession، because of its high partnership spirit among collective beneficiaries، by some conservatism can be more appropriate than other types and its deficiencies can be reduced by proper management and create the motivation of conserving natural resources by special programs among people. Regarding that the majority of ranges are commonly used, establishing cooperatives and giving the right of utilization to cooperatives is of priority based on the people's opinions.

The most important executive policy of the government is optimizing range management plans in the rangelands. Improvement, development and proper exploitation of rangelands depend on understanding the current rangeland condition and selecting a range management method (balanced, natural and artificial) to be implemented in the form of a range management plan (RMP). Data were collected from 16 ranch units of Haraz River watershed to investigate differences in methods. At first, the statistics and information of the rangelands including the total percentage of vegetation and each of the important desirable and increasing species, rangeland condition and trend, and rangeland production were extracted and studied in 2016. To determine the best range management method based on rangeland condition, the analysis of variance was used in a completely randomized design with three treatments. To compare the effect of each method during the implementation of the plan and in the current situation on the rangeland condition, trend and production of rangelands, the Duncan's test and to compare the quantitative characteristics measured before and after the implementation of the rangeland management plans, a two-sample independent t-test were used. Moreover, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare qualitative characteristics using SPSS. In this research, rangeland management methods were considered as a treatment and time intervals were considered as a replicate. The results showed that although the vegetation percentage of palatable species composition did not increase, the balanced and natural methods were the best rangeland management methods in the good and fair rangeland condition, respectively. The reason for not increasing the palatable species was the unsuccessful implementation of planned programs in Range Management Plans (RMPs). On the other hand, although the artificial range management method was correctly performed in the RMPs with poor vegetation types, the implementation of these plans had no significant effect on the rangeland condition and trend of the study rangelands due to the high livestock population. It has also caused the cost of implementing reclamation and improvement projects on the beneficiaries. Although the percentage of vegetation cover of undesirable species of rangelands has increased, over the past 25 years, the total percentage of canopy cover and production has decreased. It seems that rangeland plans will be more effective when there is a balance between grazing capacity and livestock population.

During the last few decades, one of the most important problems of Iran rangelands is how to manage ranch units, which are managed according to the grazing license, in one of the three common methods, council, collective and private exploitation. The most important tool for achieving sustainable development and natural resource management is property right. Considering the importance of rangeland management in exploitation systems, the present study tries to investigate the effective indicators on rangeland management in collective and private exploitation systems in Golestan province. The indicators used in this research include human, social, ecological and institutional-political. The research method is descriptive-survey and the respondent community in this research are competent rangeland users. The collected data were analyzed in two descriptive sections using central inclination and dispersion indices and the inferential section was analyzed using statistical tests in SPSS software version 22. The results of this study also indicated that rangelands have managed by private method, have a better situation in terms of the level of awareness of users, the tendency to carry out remedial work and the tendency to protect rangelands. The level of awareness of users was 3.40 and 2.54 in private and collective exploitation methods, respectively. Examining the type of rangeland utilization pattern shows that the tendency to breed in private rangelands with an average of 4.40 has been much higher than collective rangelands with an average of 3.12. The study of the tendency to protect rangeland and exploited areas indicates a greater tendency of private method users than the collective method users. The degree of tendency to protection in the two models of private and collective exploitation was 4.20 and 3.72, respectively. The results of the present study showed that by using the private method in management, it is possible to achieve natural resource conservation, sustainable development and optimal resource management.

According to influences of different exploitation methods of Rangelands on welfare or demolition of rangelands and existing of different methods in Iran, identification, assessment and comparison of different exploitation methods was taken action from condition, trend, production, extra animal unit on the area unit and minimum area for each user on each units of exploitation of Amirkabir dam watershed. For reaching to these results, Individual ranching, group ranching and Shoraee method with range plans and group ranching and Shoraee method without Range plans had been chosen and assessed. At the end with the comparison of these methods and comparison of rangelands with range plans and without range plans was proved that Range managements projects in this zone have not been succeeded and Individual ranching method with range plans, with emphasis on individual part was chosen as the best exploitation method of this zone for welfare and keeping safe of Range lands.

Nowadays, ecological condition and capacity of rangeland is considered to be one of the effective parameters in ranchers motivating to participate in range management plans for proper utilization of rangelands. The over all objective of this study was to analyze the correlation between range condition and participation of ranchers in accomplishing range management plans in Baladeh summer ranches in the northern Iran. The research tool was 4-factorial method for determining ranges condition, and questionnaire for assessing participation of the ranchers. Sampling was done using randomised stratified method. Statistical population included 102 ranches, where in 72 of them restoration projects were performed at least for three years. The findings show a positive significant relationship between range conditions with the participation of the executors at each ranch. Also ¬ANOVA showed a significant difference between degrees of range condition with the participation rate of the executors. Comparison of the mean values using Duncan's test showed that those ranch with good and excellent range condition had the highest participation of the executors. The results also indicated that there was no significant relationship between permissive numbers predicted livestock in unit area- determined by the expert- and the range condition at each ranch.

Governance of protected areas has been changed dramatically to overcome the lack of state budget. Moreover, such changes have occurred to facilitate the partnership and involvement of local communities. Game ranches, as one of the conservation means, have been growing rapidly due to such needs and changes. Tourism is the only way of earning income for most of these areas. Regarding to this new approach of biodiversity conservation, Department of Environment of Iran (DOE) has established number of game ranches in three provinces of Iran for the first time. Among all of them, Yazd province belongs the most number of pilot game ranches. Since game ranching is an extremely new phenomenon in Iran, the main question of this research is “what are the most appropriate types of governance for game ranches of Iran?” to answer this question we introduced different types of governance in protected areas which are well known internationally. Furthermore, via identifying good governance principals we are going to measure the effectiveness of governance in Yazd’s game ranches.
This study has assessed the good governance principles in two game ranches in Yazd. The participants of this research were local communities, managers and staff of the game ranches and also experts of Department of Environment of Yazd. The findings show that regarding to the existing law and regulations and also human system and eco-system of Yazd, the most appropriate type of governance is the collaborative type between private sector and local community. But based on the participants’ answers there are two main important problems: (1) the lack of strategic plan to facilitate the participation of local stakeholders and (2) delays in licensing the operation of consumptive wildlife tourism within the game ranches from DOE. Both problems seem to have negative impacts on effectiveness of collaborative governance of the game ranches.

Livestock exodus from Mazandaran forests is always a problem for natural resources decision makers in province and the country. Irregular grazing in forest lands of Mazandaran province has been resulted in deterioration of many of natural resources including forest lands. This study, with the aid of quality function approach such as Logit Regression Model investigated the effect of social-economic factors in livestock exodus from the Forest in Mazandaran province in 2009. Therefore, variables such as annual’s income of rancher, number of jobs, scale of family, experience of ranching, preservationimportance of natural resources, age of ranchers, participation in rangeland management projects, importance of preserving period and education of rancher were investigated. Results showed that variable of ranching experience had most elasticity in which by one percent increase in this variable, probability of livestock exodus will be increased to 0.389 percent. According to marginal effect statistic, with increasing one year to rancher experiences, probability of livestock exodus will be increased up to 0.029 units. Also with increasing every 1000 Rials in monthly income, exodus probability will be increased up to 0.00018 units. According to the results, by addition of every year to the education level, probability of livestock exodus will be increased to 0.021 units. On the other hand, by addition of every individual to the scale of family, exodus probability will be decreased about 0.049 units. Also variables of preservation importance of natural resources, participation in rangeland management projects and level of respecting of preserving period of rangelands positively and significantly will affect the willingness of rancher to exodus from the forest.

Assessing ecological potential is an essential item in planning and management of land that is considered as the main prerequisite for achieving sustainable development through which capability of environment for development based on type of activity is determined. In this paper we have investigated ecological potential of Zanjan province for agricultural development and by examining current state of land use, the appropriateness and inappropriateness of various regions of the province for this activity is being known. Descriptive and analytical research methods and field data collection were applied in this survey. The overlapping maps model was utilized for determining the ecological potential and Arcgis9.3 software was used for data analysis. Our findings show that from the overall levels of potential for agriculture and ranch management, 111909.42 hectares for agricultural class II, 12765.66 hectares for farming class III, and 77257.84 hectares is suitable for agriculture class IV. Also 71458.76 hectares is proportional for ranch management class II, 68422.05 hectares for ranch management class III and 56382.03 hectares for ranch management class IV.