Understanding forest-dependent pastoralists' soil conservation decisions through an integrated behavioral framework

Effective forest policy and sustainable management depend on understanding the behavioral factors that shape local resource users' conservation decisions. In forest-dependent pastoral systems, soil degradation from uncontrolled grazing poses serious ecological and policy challenges, particularly in the Zagros forests of Iran. This study examines the psychological, moral, and economic determinants of pastoralists' intentions and behaviors toward forest soil conservation within an integrated behavioral framework. Using data from 417 pastoralists and applying structural equation modeling, an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model, incorporating constructs from the value-belief-norm theory and perceived economic feasibility, was tested. The model explained 58.3% of the patsoralists' intention and 58.5% of their behavior, indicating high model power. Results revealed that moral responsibility and perceived economic benefits of their behaviors were the strongest predictors of intention, while attitude and perceived behavioral control had the greatest direct influences on actual behavior. These findings highlight that although this study employed an extended version of the Ajzen model, the pathways of influence and the relative importance of the variables in predicting intention and behavior differed from those proposed in the traditional formulation of the model. The study contributes to forest policy discourse by demonstrating that effective soil conservation strategies should integrate behavioral insights with economic and moral incentives. This integrative framework offers a policy-relevant approach for designing incentive-based and participatory mechanisms that align rural livelihoods with sustainable forest management goals.