The mechanism of knowledge-based behavior of pastoralists for rangeland management: exploitation, restoration and conservation

Pastoralists have managed their lands for a thousand years, but they are ignored in the land management approaches. They have comprehensive information about their rangelands, coming from extensive observations and experiences in continuous herding. This research has focused on revealing the mechanism of knowledge-based behavior of pastoralists for rangeland management. The statistical population is made up of 50 pastoralists, all of whom were included in census. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire that measured the knowledge-based behavior of pastoralists with 58 items in three indicators i.e. exploitation, conservation, and restoration. The validity and reliability of the research instrument were assessed using the opinions of local experts and Cronbach's alpha (α = 0.877). The knowledge-based behavior of pastoralists were from the highest to the lowest related to exploitation, conservation, and restoration with the average of 2.35, 2.07 and 1.58 respectively. Exploitation knowledge, restoration knowledge and conservation knowledge had the strongest and weakest significant relationship with the knowledge-based behavior of pastoralists. “The adequate growth of palatable plants is a sign of the start of grazing” and “the soil should not be wet for the start of grazing” had the highest importance for rangeland exploitation with a values of 0.816 and 0.784 respectively. For rangeland conservation, “holding meetings by elders regarding rangeland conservation is useful” and “reducing the number of pastoralists during droughts is one of the rangeland conservation ways” were the most importance items with the values of 0.852 and 0.848 respectively. For rangeland restoration, “implementation of grazing systems (rotation or rest rotation grazing systems) is one of the rangeland restoration ways” and “the appropriate distribution of watering points is one of the rangeland restoration factors” were the most importance items with the values of 0.840 and 0.812 respectively. There was a positive and significant relationship between the age, history of pastoralism and income with the knowledge-based behavior of pastoralists in rangeland management. Therefore, the presented approach based on indigenous knowledge can be considered as an effective component for rangeland management and can strengthen the positive effects of both management systems and create a transformation in the status of natural resources by a compatible combination of indigenous knowledge and modern knowledge. It is worth noting that by knowing these indicators, we can take an effective step in planning and policy making as well as proper management of rangelands.