Track 3-6-1: Public‐Private Partnership in Managing Common Property Resources

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Severe land fragmentation, degradation, and pollution problems will force us to think about a rural community and research group in Iran to combine our experiences and skills to deal with the challenges of improving land use sustainability (Bosch at el.1995; Mesdaghi, 1993). Planning rangeland inventory requiring recognition of the ecological processes operating at different scales and their particular characteristics (Friedel and Laycock, 1995).

In ancient countries like Persia (Iran), past land use suggests that rangelands exploitation by local herders was co-adapted with natural environments (Nyerges, 1980; Mesdaghi, 1993). Iranian rangelands, however, were nationalized through the land reforming and the modernization of rural communities, so private range properties were rejected. But, government failed to properly manage the rangelands. Local people tried to make properties inside nationalized rangelands, and the rangelands were converted to dry lands (Mesdaghi, 1993). The results of these interventions were the heterogeneity of landscape and both rangelands and dry lands were interwoven in nested complex systems. Therefore, rangeland inventory as an isolated activity is almost meaningless. Meanwhile, current landscape planning involves contributions from many different social organizations often with different interests and with different desired outcomes (Mesdaghi, 1995).

In this research two study areas of arid and semi-arid regions were selected which have been studied intensively before and after land reforming (in 1974 under FAO Aid Development Projects) and Joint French and Iranian Project for Lepers (FAO, 1971, Spooner and Horne, 1980).

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The Landscape as a Unit for Rangeland Inventory in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions of Iran (Case Studies: Touran Biosphere Reserve and Behkadaye Rajinia Development Project)

Severe land fragmentation, degradation, and pollution problems will force us to think about a rural community and research group in Iran to combine our experiences and skills to deal with the challenges of improving land use sustainability (Bosch at el.1995; Mesdaghi, 1993). Planning rangeland inventory requiring recognition of the ecological processes operating at different scales and their particular characteristics (Friedel and Laycock, 1995).

In ancient countries like Persia (Iran), past land use suggests that rangelands exploitation by local herders was co-adapted with natural environments (Nyerges, 1980; Mesdaghi, 1993). Iranian rangelands, however, were nationalized through the land reforming and the modernization of rural communities, so private range properties were rejected. But, government failed to properly manage the rangelands. Local people tried to make properties inside nationalized rangelands, and the rangelands were converted to dry lands (Mesdaghi, 1993). The results of these interventions were the heterogeneity of landscape and both rangelands and dry lands were interwoven in nested complex systems. Therefore, rangeland inventory as an isolated activity is almost meaningless. Meanwhile, current landscape planning involves contributions from many different social organizations often with different interests and with different desired outcomes (Mesdaghi, 1995).

In this research two study areas of arid and semi-arid regions were selected which have been studied intensively before and after land reforming (in 1974 under FAO Aid Development Projects) and Joint French and Iranian Project for Lepers (FAO, 1971, Spooner and Horne, 1980).