Sustainable Co-Management of arid regions in southeastern Iran: Social network analysis approach.

Co-management requires two or more organizations that collectively manage natural capital. This study aimed to explore the function of social capital in the cycle of establishing co-management in southeastern Iranian rural communities (who participated in the Rehabilitation of Forest Landscapes and Degraded Land (RFLDL) project). Since measuring social capital is important and difficult, and one of the most promising and accurate methods for evaluating this capital is Social Network Analysis (SNA), it has been used as a research method in this research. The results showed an increase in the observed network characteristics of the RFLDL data, which indicates the positive effect of the social mobilization in RFLDL on bonding social capital. In addition, it suggested that the assessment of the success of community based natural resource governance solely based on a relational perspective of social capital is too narrow. Especially, traditional forms of community organization are not taken into account explicitly. Therefore, more research needs to be undertaken on how to incorporate differences in cultural organizations, traditional knowledge, and practices into the perspective of community empowerment. • The main aim was to investigate and analyze the role of intra-group social capital through social network analysis (SNA). • SNA contributed to assessing the changes in reciprocity and transitivity scores in terms of trust and collaboration network. • Results show that there is a high correlation between trust and participation of people in social network. • Stronger trusted relations between the committees promoted sustainable rural growth and collaboration. • Achieving to a lower natural resource demand than population growth can relieve pressure on these resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]