Int. J. Hum. Capital Urban Manage., 2(1): 69-76, Winter 2017 69 Int. J. Hum. Capital Urban Manage., 2(1): 69-76, Winter 2017 DOI: 10.22034/ijhcum.2017.02.01.007 *Corresponding Author Email: mahmoud_ahmadpour@yahoo.com Tel.: +9891 7772 8096; Fax: +9854 3266 2100 Willingness to participation of local communities in the conservation of national parks M. Ahmadpour Borazjani*, Sh. Mosapour, A.A. Keykha, M.R. Sasouli Agricultural Economics Department, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran CASE STUDY Received 3 October 2016; revised 7 November 2016; accepted 22 December 2016; available online 1 January 2017 ABSTRACT: Removing local communities from lands that they have been exploiting for generations without consultation or adequate compensation can result in retaliation and hostile attitudes toward the objectives of the protected areas. Therefore, this study examines the application of willingness to participate of local communities in the conservation of national parks. For the empirical observations, Iran’s Khabr National Park was studied. The required data were collected using questionnaires fulfilling and interviewing with locals and tourists of the Khabr National Park. For analyzing the data, the logit econometric model was applied. Results indicated that 80 percent of them were eager to participate and they wanted the park to be managed by private sectors. Therefore, it is recommended that the government provide a condition where the private sector act and engage people in the conservation of the park. Factors such as a history of participation in previous projects, being Indigenous, lack of management organization, and familiarity with the environment were determined as the factors which affected the participation in this project. KEYWORDS: Environmental conservation; Khabr national park; Logit model; Natural resources; Private sector INTRODUCTION Over the coming years, policy makers must make important decisions about the future of natural resources that are rapidly degraded. Continuous destruction of natural ecosystems has great consequences for all people, both those who directly depend for a living on these systems, and for other people. Relying on the resources of the community, not only because they provide goods and services directly, but also because they play an important role in regulating the climate, set gases, protect watersheds, control soil erosion, flood and drought control. In fact, the value of non-market services of natural ecosystems far more of their marketed goods and services (Boyd, 2007). Conservation is the planned management of a natural resource or the total environment of a particular ecosystem to prevent exploitation, pollution, destruction, or neglect and to ensure the future use of the resource ( Adetla and Adetoro, 2014 ). Local communities in the vicinity of national parks and protected areas have increasingly gotten a key role in achieving their conservation objectives and due to their ongoing interactions with the environment, they get familiar with the surroundings through recreation and use its resources ( Schelhas et al ., 2002 ). Community-based ecotourism has become a popular tool for biodiversity conservation, based on the principle that biodiversity must pay for itself by generating economic benefits, particularly for local people (Kiss, 2004). Jerath et al. (2014), acknowledge that in order to enhance community participation to protect three wetlands member of the Ramsar Convention in Punjab,