Ecology of Iranian Forests, Vol. 12, Issue 2, 2024 p: 104-114 Research Paper Presenting Quantitative Approaches to Investigate the Importance of the Stakeholders of Ecosystem Services in Hyrcanian Forests Hamid Amirnejad 1 , Sareh Hosseini 2 , Seyed Mohsen Hosseini 3 , Maryam Asadpour Kordi 4 , Mahsa Taslimi 5 , and Yadollah Bostan 6 1- Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran, (Corresponding author: ) 2- Assistant Professor, Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran 3- Professor, Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, Iran 4- Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Sari University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Sari, Iran 5- Ph.D., Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran 6- Ph.D. Student, , Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran Received: 25 January 2024 Accepted: 19 June 2024 Extended Abstract Background: Forests are one of the complex ecosystems of natural resources with an important role in the environment and multiple production capacities and functions. The benefit of different human societies from these resources in various forms has various effects and consequences. Without accurate and complete identification of all its stakeholders, logical and acceptable results cannot be achieved in decision-making and policy-making. Therefore, it is essential to fully understand the stakeholders (actors) and their identification criteria in line with basic policies for planning, decision-making, and success in this field. Because decision-making in the management of forest resources always faces challenges and is often associated with complexity, immutability, and uncertainty due to the multi-purpose nature of the benefits and services of these resources, the difficulty of monetary valuation of ecological services, and the great diversity of the stakeholders of their services. Therefore, the stakeholders in the fields of natural resources and forests are considered vital components, and their presence and activity in these fields are undeniable and provide a guarantee of success in cooperative management for the protection of forests. The advancement of the sustainable management goals of natural resources and forests is realized by identifying an active presence of key actors and the most important and effective groups involved, i.e. forest producers and users, along with other identified stakeholders. The primary purpose of identifying those involved is the names of all those who can and should have a role in the planning and management process, and their identification is an important part of the participatory planning process because it is considered a part of the prerequisite for participation. Therefore, identifying and determining the stakeholders make it possible to take advantage of their cooperation in a planned way in the implementation and management of forestry projects and to facilitate the implementation process of the programs. Methods: To identify, weight, and prioritize the stakeholders involved in the Hyrcanian forest ecosystem services using multi-criteria decision-making models, the stakeholders involved in the Hyrcanian forest ecosystem services were first identified and gathered based on the review of various studies. Then, the research questionnaire was designed to answer two important questions in this study: a) who are the people involved in Hyrcanian forest areas? and b) what is their priority? Therefore, the beneficiaries of the economy of Hyrcanian forests were identified by designing a questionnaire scored with a Likert scale, designing items with five priority options, and determining the individuals or groups of stakeholders. In this research, the opinions of 50 experts, academics, and experts of the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization at the provincial and regional levels were used to identify the beneficiaries of the ecosystem services of Hyrcanian forests. The questionnaire was validated and confirmed by experts, and its reliability was confirmed with a Cronbach's alpha statistic of α = 0.97. The stakeholders of the forest ecosystem services were weighted with the Step-Wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method, the Simple Additive Weighting (SAW), and Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS), and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used to prioritize them. Copyright ©2024 Amirnejad et al. Published by Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported License, which allows users to read, copy, distribute, and make derivative works for noncommercial purposes from the material, as long as the author of the original work is cited properly. Sari Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources University h.amirnejad@sanru.ac.ir Department of Agricultural Economics