Evaluating of Local Community Participation Measures in Integrated Watershed Management (Case Study: Shirin-Darreh Dam River Basin)

Integrated watershed management is one of the most important issues in Iran in recent years. The water scarcity and droughts are two main factors that took effects on water resources in arid and semi-arid regions. The integrated watershed management project with cooperation of UNDP (United Nation Development Program) and Iranian government has been started since 2014 in Shirin-Darreh dam river basin. This project has been implemented in more than 15 villages with participation of watershed stakeholders in all parts of rural development especially in environment, soil and water conservation. The main activities of the project are in land degradation, climate change, biodiversity and natural resource conservation services. Shirin-Darreh dam river basin has about 160000 hectare area and more than 20000 populations. Evaluation of the project implementation was done. The results show that the average participation of the local community is about 50 percent. In the water conservation programs included channel lining projects the measures lead to 60 saving in water consumption in irrigation. The participation project costs also decreased to one third compare to full governmental projects.