Introduction

Natural resources have an important status in social and economic development of the world. Unfortunately, in many countries especially in developing countries, increasing population, rapid urbanization, lack of knowledge about importance of natural resources along with inappropriate planning resulted in rapid degradation of forests and rangelands.

Iran is no exception and based on the latest statistics in every second about 300 square meters of forests and 400 square meters of rangelands are destroyed in Iran and annually this is accounted for destruction of about one million hectare of rangelands.

Several factors contribute to the destruction of rangelands and among them are irregular grazing, overgrazing, rapid urbanization and industrialization, converting the rangelands to farming lands and lack of knowledge and training about appropriate use of rangelands1.

Human being has caused much of destruction of rangelands and policymakers have realized that they should look for ways to involve local population in protecting and revitalizing of natural resources.

Utilization of pastures for cooking and heating is considered as one of the main causes of rangeland degradation in some parts of the world where energy is not easily available. The status of rural household energy consumption plays an important role in farmers’ daily life, especially in developing countries or regions2.

Rural energy is generally recognized as an important element of rural socio-economic development, not as an end in itself, but through the demand for the services made possible through energy inputs, such as potable water pumping, extension of the day by lighting and cooking. As a general trend, an increasing energy demand – both in quantity and quality – is highly correlated with socio-economic development. Yet, the rural populations of many developing countries have been excluded from most of the benefits of economic development and the transition to better (quality) energy services3.

Renewable energy is considered to be the basis for sustainable energy supply systems. Population growth, key incidents and movements in the development of sustainable energy technology, different available forms of renewable energies and today’s economic crisis have led to introduction of renewable energy as a clean option that can have major rule in our common future4.

The major advantages of the renewable energy technologies at the moment include the simplicity of the technologies, ease of maintenance as well as their enhanced environmental friendliness over fossil fuel system5.

However, the development of renewable energy in rural areas faces several challenges such as slow adoption; lack of research and development; lack of awareness, slow dissemination of information; inadequate policy, poor integration of renewable energy in development plans and inadequate commitment by6.

Solar energy is diffused in many parts of the world with the ambition to improve the situation in rural areas. Solar energy as a renewable energy source is considered as an important alternative options for farmers. In many developing countries, solar energy has the potential to improve the living conditions of rural households and contribute to the country’s future energy security7.

Particularly in rural areas, solar related technologies represent viable small-scale sources of renewable energy. Photovoltaic systems are portable, increasingly affordable and require minimal maintenance. Photovoltaic systems may be used by an individual households or may be linked together to form a grid with sufficient energy production to power an entire community8.

India like many developing countries, at the household level, traditional burning of biomass or use of inefficient technologies for domestic applications like lighting is common, triggering concerns related to fuel or technology switching.  In UttamUrja, it focuses on opportunities to promote cleaner energy options through delivering improved energy efficiency9.

Bangladesh is another example. experiencing a gradual shift towards exploring renewable energy resources as a driving force for rural development. A few public sector and non-government organizations have started to develop renewable energy technology (RET) projects in rural areas. The lessons learnt from different demonstrations of RET projects reveal that with careful forward planning renewable energy can provide far-reaching economic, environmental, and social benefits to people living in remote rural areas in Bangladesh10.

The use of solar photovoltaic systems of 25 Wp to 50 Wp (frequently called solar home systems, or SHSs) has been spreading fast in the rural areas of Sri Lanka as a source of energy. The large-scale penetration of solar home systems in Sri Lanka has helped rural communities both in terms of improved socio-economic conditions and reduced adverse environmental impacts, contrary to the belief that the financial burden of such systems imposed on the families outweighs the benefits11.

Sambo pointed out that one of the main barriers in adopting the renewable energy in Nigeria was lack of awareness of potential alternatives in energy resources5.

Ali Mirzaee in a study about localization of new energies concluded that informing rural population about benefits of new energies would accelerate the speed of adoption in rural areas of Iran12.

Although research and development activities are still being seriously undertaken in various aspects of renewable energy utilization, a number of the technologies have since been shown to be feasible and ready for adoption5.

The average annual solar radiation in Iran due to special geographical location is 5 kilowatt hours per day and this figure compared with other countries is very significant. Therefore, using solar energy in different parts of the country, especially in the desert regions could be an efficient energy option.

In 2003, government of Iran with cooperation of UNDP and Global Environmental Fund started the carbon sequestration project in Hussain Abad region of South Khorasan Province near the border with Afghanistan.

The project area is about 144000 hectares and the goal of project is to reduce degradation of pastures by promoting solar energy through a participatory process

This project through the mobilization of local communities will strengthen the community, social, human, financial, and natural/environmental conditions of the region. An important component of this project is to promote the utilization of solar energy in order to overcome the problem of pasture degradation.

It is expected after the completion of project more than 9000 hectares of degraded pastures through participatory and capacity building phase would be revitalized.

In first phase of project in 2003-2004, a rapid appraisal was done to identify plants grow in the pasture areas of the region. Five varieties of HaloxylonPersicum, AtriplexCanescens, ArtemimsiaSeiberi, Iris Reticulate and DoremaAmmoniacum was identified and so far more than one and half million sapling was planted in the degraded pasture areas.

The paper examines the perception of pasture owners about the role of solar energy in protecting the rangelands in South Khorasan Province of Iran. The findings would highlight the strategies for policymakers to support promotion of solar energy in rural settings of Iran.

Material and Methods

 The methodology used in this study involved a combination of descriptive and quantitative research and included the use of correlation, regression and descriptive analysis as data processing methods. The total population for this study was 310 residents of Hussain Abad who used solar energy for heating purposes. Data were collected through interview schedules.

A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with some senior experts in the Department of Energy in South Khorasan Province to examine the validity of questionnaire. A questionnaire was developed based on these interviews and relevant literature. The questionnaire included both open-ended and fixed-choice questions. The open-ended questions were used to gather information not covered by the fixed-choice questions and to encourage participants to provide feedback.

Measuring residents’ attitudes towards solar energy has been achieved largely though structured questionnaire surveys. The final questionnaire was divided into several sections. The first section was designed to gather information about personal characteristics of respondents. The second section was designed to measure the attitudes of respondents about the role of carbon sequestration project in protecting the pastures. The respondents were asked to indicate their agreements by marking their response on a five point Likert-type scale.  The next section explored the impact of solar energy on preventing the degradation of pastures and respondents were asked to indicate their opinion in a 5-point Likert format with responses from 1—completely disagree to 5—completely agree. Further section dealt with questions about satisfaction about solar energy. The last section was about knowledge regarding the benefits of solar energy. The variables and their measurement scale are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Variables and their measurement scale.

Content and face validity were established by a panel of experts consisting of faculty members at Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch and some specialists in the Department of Energy in South Khorasan Province.  Minor wording and structuring of the instrument were made based on the recommendation of the panel of experts.

A pilot study was conducted with 25 persons who had not been interviewed before the earlier exercise of determining the reliability of the questionnaire for the study. Computed Cronbach’s Alpha score was 75.0%, which indicated that the questionnaire was reliable.

Table 2: Demographic profile of respondents.

Dependent variable in the study included role of solar energy in protecting pastures which were measured by perception of respondents about the impact of solar energy. The independent variables in this research study were the knowledge of respondents about benefits of solar energy, interests of respondents about solar energy, knowledge of respondents about carbon sequestration project, age, educational level, and satisfaction about solar energy. For measurement of correlation between the independent variables and the dependent variable correlation coefficients have been utilized and include spearman test of independence.

Results

The results of descriptive statistics indicated that the 208 respondents were male and 102 were females with average age of 36 years old and more than 44 percent were illiterate. More than half of respondents indicated that their main occupation was farming.

In order to finding the perception of respondents about their attitudes about carbon sequestration project, they were asked to express their views. Table 3 displays the respondents’ means about the three statements. As can be seen the highest mean number refers to the role of the project in protecting pastures (mean= 4.47) and lowest mean number refer to knowledge about benefits of solar energy before implementing project (mean=2.01).

Table 3: Means of Respondents’ Views about the carbon sequestration project and its role in protecting pastures (1=very little; 5=very much).

Table 4 shows the means of respondents’ views about the satisfaction with using solar energy and interested in using solar energy in the future. As can be seen from this table, respondents were very much satisfied with using solar energy (mean=4.39) and very much interested in using solar energy in the future (mean=4.58).

Table 4: Means of Respondents’ Views about satisfaction with solar energy and tendency toward using it (1=very little; 5=very much).

In order to finding the means of respondent’s view about factors influencing them to adopt solar energy, respondents were asked to express their views (table 5). As can be seen the highest mean number refers to interests of respondents about natural resources (mean=4.28) and lowest mean number refers to the role of relatives in persuading them to adopt solar energy (mean=3.04).

Table 4: Means of Respondents’ Views about satisfaction with solar energy and tendency toward using it (1=very little; 5=very much).

Spearman coefficient was employed for measurement of relationships between independent variables and dependent variable. Table 6 displays the results which show that there were relationship between perception of respondents about role of solar energy in protecting pastures as dependent variable and independent variables

Table 6: Correlation measures between independent variables and role of solar energy in protecting pastures.

**p<0.01.

Table 7 shows the result for regression analysis by stepwise method. Independent variables that were significantly related to perception of respondents about role of solar energy in protecting pastures were entered.  The result indicates that 31% of the variance in the perception of respondents about role of solar energy in protecting pastures could be explained by the knowledge about benefits of solar energy, interested about solar energy and satisfaction with solar energy.

Table 7: Multivariate Regression Analysis (Role of solar energy in protecting pastures as dependent variable).

R2=.0.31

Y=0.330×1+ 0 .291×2 + 0/215×3

Discussion

The perception of respondents about the role of solar energy in protecting pastures was discussed in this article. As the regression analysis showed, the knowledge about benefits of solar energy, interested about solar energy and satisfaction about solar energy caused 31% of variance on the perception of respondents regarding the role of solar energy in protecting pastures. This result is consistent with Ali Mirzaeei conclusion in which knowledge about benefits of solar energy have impact on adopting this type of energy12.

Based on the results of the mean score, respondents indicated that the main factor influencing them to adopt the solar energy was their interests about natural resources. Wijayatunga and Attalage indicated that adoption of solar energy in Sri Lanka resulted in improving natural resources and reducing the environmental destruction11.

The results also show that authorities should explore ways to increase the participation of the rural population in planning, implementing and evaluation of solar energy. The lack of support from respondents may hinder the progress in the sustainability of solar energy. In Bangladesh, participation of rural population through non governmental organizations has developed renewable energy technology and this has resulted economic, environmental and social benefits in rural areas10.

The results demonstrated that success of solar energy will depend on the informing population about benefits, and in this regard the authorities should provide accurate and on time information.

There is no single and appropriate intervention for developing and protecting solar energy in rural areas and in view of the numerous and varied constraints and opportunities, there is need to develop location- specific strategies.

References

1. Hosseini S.J.F. and Saboonchi A., The perception of Pasture owners about Factors Influencing Their Participation in the Revitalization of Rangelands in Kermanshah Province, Aust. J. Bas. Appl. Sci., 8: 3708-3712 (2010).
2. Zhou Z. Wu W. Chen Q. and Chen S., Study on Sustainable Development of Rural Household’s Energy in Northern China, Rene. Sust.Ene. Rev., 12: 2222-2239 (2008). doi:10.1016/j.rser.2007.03.007
3. Van Campen B. Guidi D. and Best G., Solar Photovoltaics for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, FAO, Rome (2000).
4. Taleghani M. Ansari H.R. and Jennings P., Renewable Energy Education for Architects: Lessons from Developed and Developing Countries, Int. J. Sust. Dev. Wor. Eco.,17: 444-450 (2010).
5. Sambo A.S., Renewable Energy for Rural Development: A Nigerian Perspectives, ISESCO. Sci. Tech. Vis., 1: 12-22 (2005).
6. Mfume O. and Boone E.K., Promoting Renewable Energy Technologies for Rural Development in Africa: Experiences of Zambia, J. Hum. Eco.,24: 175-189 (2008).
7. Gustavsson M., Educational Benefits from Solar Technology: Access to Solar Electric Services and Changes in Children’s Study Routines, Experiences from Eastern Province Zambia, Ene. Pol., 35: 1292-1299 (2007). doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2006.03.019
8. Gueye A. McNary J. and Okai J. Solar Energy and Rural Development: Constraints and Insights from the Developing World, Solar Energy Industries Association, Washington, D.C. (2004).
9. Rehman I.H. Kar A. Raven R. Singh D. Tiwari J. Jha R. and Sinha P.K., Rural Energy Transitions in Developing Countries: a Case of the UttamUrja Initiative in India, Env. Sci. Pol., 13: 303-311 (2010). doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2010.03.012
10. Mondal A.H. Kamp L.M. and Pachova N.I., Drivers, Barriers, and Strategies for Implementation of Renewable Energy Technologies in Rural Areas in Bangladesh—an Innovation System Analysis, Ene. Pol., 38: 4626-4634 (2010). doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2010.04.018
11. Wijayatunga P.D.C. and Attalage R.A., Socio-economic Impact of Solar Home Systems in Rural Sri Lanka: a Case Study, Ene. Sus. Dev.9: 5-9 (2005). doi:10.1016/S0973-0826(08)60487-1
12. Ali Mirzaee V., Examining the Mechanisms Which Influence the Adoption of New Energies in Iran, Master Thesis, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch (2008).