Journal of Rangeland

Today, the preparation and implementation of rangeland management are plans as the main and most important strategy of the country's rangeland managers in order to manage these resources. But in most cases, these projects are not welcomed or less welcomed by the villagers during the implementation phase. The purpose of this study is to identify the major obstacles facing the participation of villagers in the acceptance of rangeland management plans, the implementation of projects envisaged in the plans and ultimately the protection of these projects. For this purpose, a case study was conducted in Zanjan province with a qualitative approach based on the granded  theory method. The research population consisted of a number of experienced experts of the General Department of Natural Resources and Watershed Management of Zanjan province as well as a number of informed and key ranchers in 3 villages with rangeland management plans in the province which were selected by non-random sampling method with snowball pattern. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Data analysis using the Nvivo software 10 version led to the identification of 190 basic concepts. Similar concepts were merged or deleted, and finally 74 concepts with appropriate and independent semantic load were counted (open coding); Related concepts in 6 formats "category or central phenomenon, causal conditions, strategies, contextual conditions, intervening conditions and consequences" categorized (axial coding) and Finally, the extracted concepts and categories were systematically related to each other and presented in the form of a paradigm model entitled "Analysis model of barriers to rural participation in rangeland projects" (selective coding). This model will help those in charge of preparing rangeland management plans to prepare future plans with the participation of the villagers (exploiters) in order to achieve their maximum participation and acceptance in the implementation stage and on the other hand, to achieve the most important goal of the implemented rangeland management projects, which is to protect the projects and activities carried out, to be largely assured.