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Abstract
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Land-use change is a primary driver of global environmental degradation, with wetlands experiencing severe impacts, as 30–90% of global wetlands have been lost or significantly altered. Despite their critical ecological role, wetland land-use dynamics remain understudied, necessitating urgent conservation efforts aligned with three key 2030 global agendas. In Iran, agricultural overexploitation emerges as the predominant threat to wetland ecosystems, surpassing other factors such as climate change. This study investigates the drivers of land-use change and farmers’ conservation behaviors in the Bakhtegan and Tashak wetlands of Iran through a two-phase approach. Phase one employs remote sensing and GIS to quantify land-use transformations from 2000 to 2020, revealing a significant expansion of bare lands surrounding these wetlands. Phase two surveys local farmers to assess the socio-psychological factors shaping their willingness to support wetland conservation, analyzed using ENVI 5.3, ArcGIS 10.3, SPSS 20, and AMOS 20. Results indicate that positive attitudes and subjective norms significantly influence farmers’ behavioral intentions toward conservation (p < 0.05). These findings underscore the need for targeted policy interventions that integrate socio-psychological insights with land-use monitoring to enhance wetland conservation strategies.
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