Investigating patterns of local people participation in development Process of Mangrove Forests in south of Iran

Acording to empirical evidences, first step of any successful intervention in sutainable natural resources development process is identifying needs of local people and other stakeholders as well as recognition of their contributions in order to effective participating in all step of process. With regard to this comment, in this paper as result of a descriptive research based on survey strategy, tried to identify some patterns related to local people's participation in development of mangrove forests in south of Iran (Boushehr province coasts). Validity of questionnaire as data gathering instrument, confirmed by selected experts and Coronbach Alpha coefficient (equal to 67% - 79% range by different parts of questionnaire) used to confirm its reliability. Data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) based on appropriate statistics. In descriptive findings, items and patterns related to mangrove forests utilizations, causes of forest degradation, local participation attitudes, participation areas and procedures, in process of several categories, information and communication channels where illustrated. Inferential tests (F and T-student) results showed differences of participative attitude of respondents based on some variables such as age, education level, participation in rural project and membership of local institutions. Using stepwise regression led to a linear equation including age, number of livestock (ownership), recourse to governmental offices and membership period of local institutions as independence variables and R2Ad coefficient indicated that this linear equation explained about 60% variance of participative attitude of local people as dependence variable.