Abstract
The United Nations has implemented projects focusing on the participation of local communities in economic, social and ecological criteria in different countries. The present study aimed to assess the effects of such projects on sustainable ecosystem management indicators in the Tilabad watershed, Golestan province, Iran. The statistical population includes 99 pastoralists from 3 pastoral units, of which 80 pastoralists were selected as the sample size and sampled by stratified random sampling technique. The measurement tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The results showed that 41.3% of the respondents (the highest frequency) evaluated the effectiveness of project as good. The implementation of the participatory project has had a positive and significant effect on the sustainable ecosystem management (β = 0.703 and t = 12.756). The greatest effectiveness is related to the social (β = 0.671 and t = 12.146) and economic (β = 0.644 and t = 8.615) criteria. Age, experience of animal husbandry (P ≤ 0.05), the number of animals, and the amount of income from animal husbandry (P ≤ 0.01) had a positive and significant relationship with the project effectiveness on sustainable ecosystem management in the area. It can be concluded that participatory approaches can lead to sustainable ecosystem management.