Investigation of indigenous knowledge of forest traditional management in northern Zagros forests

This Study deals with the relationships between forest resources traditionalmanagement and inhabitants’ at custom unit level in the semiarid deciduousforests of Zagros that covered 6.07 million ha in west of Iran. Relationshipsbetween the traditional utilization and socioeconomic development during recentdecades caused land cover changes in the study area. These changes haveimpacts on the functions of the environment, such as human and ecosystemhealth, availability of resources and biodiversity (Jazirehi and Ebrahimi, 2003).People who have live in forested areas often have unique and useful knowledgebased on their long-term, local experience. Recognition of the value of localknowledge and its use are powerful tools for enhancing communication andcooperation between local people and other forest managers and for empoweringlocal development (Colfer et al., 1999). In semiarid forests, dependency on nontimberforest products (NTFPs) and environmental services of these resourceshas a high value (Mahapatra and Tewari, 2005; Croitoru, 2007).