Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Abdolhamid Papzan
• Nashmil Afshazadeh

Abstract

Human being, now and in future, absolutely requires natural resources to continue his life especially rangelands as the most vital bed for sustainable development of environment and ecological phenomena, main feed supply for livestock in traditional animal husbandry system and so forth. Rangelands with an area of 90 million ha, about 60% of the country area, have undeniable role in socioeconomic calculations of the country. Despite several plans designed for range improvement and management, rangelands are exposed to serious threats. It seems that recognition of beneficiaries' indigenous knowledge including nomads as the most main utilizer in rangelands is utmost important for range improvement. This current qualitative study was carried out to identify and document the indigenous knowledge of Kalhor tribe's nomads for native mechanisms of range management. Gilan e gharb city of Kermanshah province was selected in this research. Data collection was performed through techniques like PRA and RRA were used. According to the nature of qualitative research, targeted sampling was applied and collected data were analyzed using content analysis.   Findings refers to issues such as rangeland classification based upon slope, animal unit, rangeland segmentation, some native strategies in range management like migration, range analysis and so forth.  
 

Keywords

• indigenous knowledge
• Kalhor nomads
• Range management
• qualitative research
• Kermanshah Province