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The establishment of local communal organizations is a unique strategy of rural communities to build resilience against economic challenges. Shirvareh is traditionally recognized as an important communal organization of women in Southwestern Iran for managing dairy production and securing their livelihood. Preserving this vital social institution and its associated indigenous knowledge was the main motivation of this study to examine factors influencing Shirvareh's performance. Given that relevant studies on the performance of this social organization in Iran are rare, the current study was an attempt to fill this gap through an empirical study using a social network analysis (SNA) approach. The general goal of this study was to investigate the networks of trusting relationships of rural women involved in the Shirvareh organization in Ghasr-e-Yaghoub village located in Fars province, Southwestern Iran. The results revealed that possible in-group trust ties were maximum

Modifying human activities is key to achieving land degradation neutrality in rangelands. Rangeland stakeholders encompass different ownership regimes; however, little is known about whether different ownership models benefit or degrade social conditions and ecosystem services in the Middle East. The aim of this research was to determine the effects of Collective or Council ownership on social and ecological indicators in the wintery rangeland of Iran. The study included a social network analysis of the 187 stakeholders in the communal rangelands of Kalat (NE Iran). We considered social network variables such as density, reciprocity, transitivity, geodesic distance and E-I (external-internal) and degree centrality combined with ecological indicators such as condition, forage yield and trend in range condition. The stocking rate was 2.43 AU ha −1 in Council rangelands and 0.94 AU ha −1 for Collective rangelands, with both exceeding recommended carrying capacity. Herbage mass and canopy cover were both higher in the Collective (247 kg/ha; 59%) than Council rangelands (140 kg/ha; 48.3%). Density (47.6% and 48.6%) and reciprocity (54.2% and 53.7%) were higher for Collective rangelands than Council rangelands, but were lower for geodesic distance (1.5 and 1.7-1.8) for trust and collaboration ties. Collective rangelands showed more bridging ties (55%) than the council rangelands (27.5%), suggesting they would be more resilient when problems occur. It concluded that social capital was richer in the Collective rangelands, which creates a willingness in operators to contribute to participatory management of rangelands to improve their condition. Finally suggested new tools and policies, and possible financial and pedagogic support be provided to the Council rangelands to increase social capital and improve outcomes.

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