Abstract:
Today, identifying and evaluating the factors that influen
ce People’s Participation (PP)
in Sustainable Natural Resource Management (SNRM) are the most common challenges
that natural resource scientists should address. The purpose of this study was to
understand the demographic, socio
-
cultural, and religious fact
ors that influence PP in
SNRM in Isfahan city, Iran. Using a multi
-
stage, stratified random sampling method, 200
experts and natural resource users were selected through Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient
(0.93). Data was collected using a researcher
-
made questi
onnaire. A panel of experts and
Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient, respectively, approved the content validity and reliability
of the questionnaire. Results showed that public awareness factors were the key elements
when approaching SNRM in the view of natural
resource experts, while natural resource
users identified religious characteristics as the key factors that influence PP.
Furthermore, the results indicated that there was no significant difference between
personal characteristics (age, education backgroun
d, marital status) and PP in SNRM.
Thus, it can be concluded that the natural resource experts and users perceive the factors
that influence the adoption of SNRM approaches differently. Since these factors are still
poorly understood and vary widely across
the country, more research is needed in order
to better understand the PP and adoption of SNRM.
Keywords:
Cronbach‟s Alpha, Public awareness, Religious factors, Sociocultural factors.
