Willingness to participation of local communities in the conservation of national parks

Removing local communities from lands that they have been exploiting for generations without consultation or adequate compensation can result in retaliation and hostile attitudes toward the objectives of the protected areas. Therefore, this study examines the application of willingness to participate of local communities in the conservation of national parks. For the empirical observations, Iran’s Khabr National Park was studied. The required data were collected using questionnaires fulfilling and interviewing with locals and tourists of the Khabr National Park. For analyzing the data, the logit econometric model was applied. Results indicated that 80 percent of them were eager to participate and they wanted the park to be managed by private sectors. Therefore, it is recommended that the government provide a condition where the private sector act and engage people in the conservation of the park. Factors such as a history of participation in previous projects, being Indigenous, lack of management organization, and familiarity with the environment were determined as the factors which affected the participation in this project.

Keywords:

Environmental conservation , Khabr national park , Logit model , Natural resources , Private sector