دانشگاه تهران پژوهش های روستائی 2008-7373 5 2 2014 07 23 The Role of Cultural Factors in Supporting Policies to Adapt to Climate Change by Farmers Case Study: Babolsar city تحلیل جامعه‌شناختی مقابلة کشاورزان با آثار زیان‌بار تغییر آب‌وهوا مطالعة موردی: شهرستان بابلسر 355 374 52475 10.22059/jrur.2014.52475 FA صادق صالحی استادیار جامعه‌شناسی محیط‌زیست، دانشگاه مازندران زهرا پازوکی نژاد مربی جامعه‌شناسی دانشگاه پیام نور واحد قائم‌شهر Journal Article 2014 03 11 Extended AbstractIntroductionClimate change is a phenomenon that rapidly occurring and the necessity to adapt itare crucial. Knowledge of climate change and the certainty of its occurrence arecritical to the empowerment of vulnerable groups towards its outcome. Taking ascientific and proper approach to deal with the issue of global climate change (GCG)requires awareness towards this phenomenon which helps to make a proper andapplicable policy. In other words, to address CC issues like environmental risks weneed to understand the causes, consequences and potential solutions to CC. Because,environmental issues of the early twenty first century are characterized by a highlevel of scientific and technical complexity, good citizens needs to be well informedand more accurate on decisions about scientific issues. Therefore, by arisingknowledge of CC, individual behavioral changes directed towards combating theproblem can be engendered. In recent years, many researchers have examined publicknowledge of the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion. This field of study seemsvery new and the CC issue seems under studied. This means public's understandingof CC has not been determined and there is no information about people attitudesand behavior toward CC issue. Iran is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol andaccording to this treaty; she is obliged to implement mitigation and adaptation  policies to reduce greenhouse gas. Performance indicators reported by the GermanInstitute for Climate Watch in 2011 suggests that Iran was allocated rank 52 of the60 positions to its ranking which suggests that it dropped 14 steps lower than theprevious period based on the performance index of climate change. According toenactment the rules of procedure adopted Convention on Climate Change and theKyoto Protocol in July 2009 by cabinet and the National Climate Change Committeeand the Secretariat related it in Environmental Protection Agency’ Iran, it seems Irangets better grades in terms of reducing carbon emissions. The purpose of this studyis to analysis the role of knowledge and belief in forming farmers’ support towardsclimate change adaptation policies in agriculture.MethodologyThe present study utilized survey method and the main tool for data collection wasquestionnaire. Given that the main focus of study is assessing farmers’ knowledge,the unit of analysis in this study is farmers and level of analysis is micro. To thisend, total population was 7861 of farmers’ Babolsar that using multi-stage clustersampling, 140 were selected as samples. A total of 140 farmers were interviewedface to face, using questionnaires. The questionnaire consisted of 64 questions. Thequestions were either open ended or in multiple choice format. The rate of validity’questions were higher than 60 percent. 3 hypotheses were examined. Data entry,editating and final processing was performed by applying software SPSS. The initialanalysis showed that the dependent variable did have a normal distribution and weutilized parametric test (e.g. Pearson correlation coefficient, Regression model) forhypothesis testing accordingly.FindingsThe findings show that knowledge of climate change and belief in the occurrenceand level of supporting the policies is rather moderate, declined to high. Based onregression analysis, the average agricultural land and a belief in the occurrence ofclimate change, were the most important factors affecting policies supports. In  contrast, the age and knowledge of climate change showed no effect on supportingclimate change policies.DiscussionThe results of this study showed that knowledge does not necessarily lead tosupporting climate change policies. Belief in climate change played a major role increating incentives to tackle climate change. In fact, those villagers who believeclimate change is happening and that human activity is the main source of climatechange, they expressed greater willingness to undertake collective action to supportadaptation and mitigation policies. Based on the above results, the following can bepresented as research suggestions.• Improvement of extension services in the rural region, to improve knowledge andskills of farmers on climate change adaptation strategies and familiarizing them withthe basic elements of successful implementation of policies to tackle climate change.• Government agencies and non-governmental reports should be available toscholars in order to properly analyze the current situation. In addition, we needorganizations that are involved in climate change education and take responsibilityto provide the information about factors and consequences of climate change.• Projections of economic, social and cultural consequences of climate change forrural communities is needed and this needs to be done by experts so that they canrespond more effectively to global warming. In this context, one of the mostconsistent programs is sustainable agriculture that farmers should be given thenecessary training.• Providing mental and financial support and empowering farmers by the respectiveinstitutions makes farmers to have choices for changing product strategies andmanaging resources (water, soil and inputs) to tackle climate change. تغییر آب‌و‌هوا پدیده‌ای است که به‌سرعت درحال وقوع است و پیامدهای زیان‌بار گسترده‌ای دارد. بهره‌گیری از دانش تغییر آب‌وهوا و یقین داشتن از ‌وقوع آن، در توانمندسازی گروه‌های آسیب‌پذیر در برابر پیامدهای این تغییر بسیار مؤثر و حیاتی است. هدف از انجام پژوهش حاضر، بررسی نقش دانش و باور کشاورزان به تغییر آب‌وهوا در حمایت‌شان از سیاست‌های سازگاری در کشاورزی است. جامعۀ آماری این تحقیق را 7861 نفر از کشاورزان شهرستان بابلسر تشکیل می‌دهند که با استفاده از نمونه‌گیری خوشه‌ای چندمرحله‌ای، تعداد 140 نفر از آنها به‌عنوان نمونۀ آماری برگزیده شدند. ابزار گردآوری اطلاعات تحقیق، پرسشنامۀ محقق‌ساخته بود و میزان پایایی پرسش‌ها بیش از 60 درصد به‌دست آمد. یافته‌های تحقیق نشان می‌دهند که میزان دانش تغییر آب‌و‌هوا، باور به ‌وقوع آن و نیز سطح حمایت کشاورزان از سیاست‌های مقابله، بیش از متوسط بوده است. براساس تحلیل رگرسیون، متوسط زمین زراعیِ دراختیار و باور به ‌وقوع تغییر آب‌وهوا مهم‌ترین عوامل تأثیرگذار بر حمایت کشاورزان از سیاست‌های مقابله بودند. درحالی‌که متغیرهای سن، درآمد حاصل از کشاورزی، و دانش تغییر آب‌وهوا بر عامل حمایت تأثیری نداشتند. براساس نتایج این تحقیق، پیشنهادهایی برای توانمندسازی کشاورزان و حمایت‌های اجتماعی، روانی، و اقتصادی ارائه شده است. https://jrur.ut.ac.ir/article_52475_abddd218d7b0b9fc5e0dea60cde9a641.pdf