Determining Key Actors, Social Power and Centrality Index in Adaptive Rangeland Participatory Management (Case Study: Zangalo Village, Mazandaran Province)

In order to improve and rehabilitate and sustainable rangeland management, one of the mostimportant approaches in policy making is participatory resource management. In this approach, local operatorsor stakeholders are one of the key components. In order to implement participatory management in thedirection of sustainable rangeland management, it is necessary to analyze the social network of localstakeholders in the framework of socio-ecological systems. Therefore, in this research, social network analysisand identification of key actors or social powers in the implementation of participatory management processin order to sustainable management of Zangalo rangeland in the geographical area of Chaloo region has beendone. Based on the results of this study, key actors and social powers in natural resource decisions have beenidentified and based on centrality indicators, the degree of input and output of actors with high social authorityand influence among users has been determined. The Alma-Al actor has the highest authority as well as themost social influence among the Zangalo rangers. The Ha-Ma actor has the highest mediation role. Actors withhigher social capital than other actors have been identified as local leaders in the participatory managementprocess of the studied ecosystem. The results of this research are important in developing a participatory andsustainable rangeland management action plan and efficient implementation of programs, and the networkanalysis method is a useful tool in this regard.

Keywords:

social power , participatory management , network analysis