Factors influencing the application of forest conservation behavior among rural communities in Iran

Today, the importance of natural forests is obvious to everyone, but every year a large part of these resources is lost due to various reasons such as human and natural factors, among which the contribution of human factors is more than others. Therefore, most of the forest destructions is caused by the irresponsible behavior of humans, who did not adopt reasonable methods in encountering these treasures and utilizing them, and instead of planning for sustainable use, they have greedily exploited and profited from them. As a result, one of the challenges of most countries is how to solve this problem and prevent further damages to forests. In this regard, this research was conducted with the main goal of factors affecting the use of forest conservation behavior (FCB) among rural communities in Iran. For achieving that, three general goals were followed: (1) conducting a coherent research to identify the most important factors affecting FCB (2) identifying the most important FCB among locals and (3) providing practical policies in the field of forest conservation for policy makers and decision makers in order to the sustainable management of these natural ecosystems. At first, using research literature, 18 influencing factors on FCB were identified, which were placed in economic, social, psychological and human classes. The results of prioritizing FCBs among people indicated that the behaviors of preventing the entry of an excessive number of livestock into the forest and not lighting a fire near or in the forest are used more than other behaviors. In addition the results showed that social capital with an explanatory value of 65.5% has the greatest effect on FCB. In addition, the findings indicated that among the economic, social capital, psychological and human factors, the variables of the dependence level on the forest, social norm, intention and environmental knowledge and awareness were the most important influencing variables, respectively. Also, the findings indicated that among the economic, social capital, psychological and human factors, the variables of the dependence level on the forest, social norm, intention and environmental knowledge and awareness were the most important influencing variables, respectively. •Investigating economic factors affecting forest protection.•Investigating social factors affecting forest protection.•Investigating psychological factors affecting forest protection.