Determination of Vulnerable Areas to Grazing in Forest (Case study: Patom District of Kheyrud Forest)

Document Type : Original Article

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Abstract

Today, the destruction of forests has increased with the overgrazing of livestock and so in regard with the critical role of forest, measures must be programmed to conserve, rehabilitate and manage this divine gift. The investigation on the damages of grazing on forest indicates that grazing can significantly affect ecosystem sustainability and impose many negative impacts on forest ecosystems such as soil, vegetation, forest regeneration, biodiversity, landscape, wildlife etc. Therefore determination of vulnerable areas to grazing is vital to control the degradation of forest ecosystems. The object of this study is to determine vulnerable forest areas to grazing through determination of severity of environmental quality degradation caused by grazing, assessment of probability of grazing and determination of ecological vulnerability in Patom District of Kheyrud Forest. The results of this study showed that there are 15 regions with different sensitivity to grazing in Patom District that part of compartments 101 and 107 are the most vulnerable areas to grazing. 

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