---

Sustainable livelihoods approach is one of the new analytical approaches in the arena of rural development, and is considered much in recent years in order to achieve rural development and poverty reduction. The purpose of this study was to assess the sustainability of livelihoods of rural households from the perspective of the householders whose main occupation and source of livelihoods was agriculture and to identify those factors that could predict the accuracy of the classification of farmers with different perspectives of their livelihoods sustainability. Survey technique was used to collect data. Statistical population of the study included the farmers of Kermanshah Province, Iran. By using two-stage stratified sampling and determining selected counties, 250 householder farmers were chosen as a sample. Face validity of the data collection means was approved by an expert panel, and through the implementation of a pilot study, its reliability was approved. The results indicate that the study group felt insecurity and instability: about three-quarters of them assessed their livelihoods as unsustainable, and only one-quarter of them assessed their livelihoods as sustained. Statistical analysis showed that environmental, individual, and socio-economic factors have relationship with farmers' perspective toward their livelihoods sustainability. According to discriminate analysis, six variables were able to predict farmers' attitude toward their livelihoods sustainability and that prediction would be accurate with a probability of 70 percent.
 

---

This research was designed to assess the economic, social, cultural and legal factors as main underlying drivers of land seizure in rural communities of Zagros regions in I.R. Iran. The study utilized a mixed research methodology based on an exploratory case study and a descriptive-explanatory survey. This methodology was conducted using the techniques of documents analysis, direct observation of land seizure in Zagros region, semi-structured and structured interviews using a questionnaire. The statistical population consisted of 80 households with a history of seizing and occupation of national lands in the villages of study area which all of them were questioned. The results of factor and regression analysis showed that economic components (with beta coefficient of 0.881) such as poverty, unemployment, low income and lack of permanent jobs have the most impacts on the destruction and seizure of national lands and socio-cultural components (with beta coefficient of 0.797) are at the next levels. In addition, the results of this survey revealed that legal issues such as the weakness of existing laws and the weakness of custodians to conserve and protect national resources had the least effect in comparison with other factors. Considering the increasing destruction and degradation of the national lands in Iran, in order to preserve the existing land and prevent the increase in the degradation and seizure of forests and rangelands, the conservation plans of the government and the authorities of natural resources protection should be aimed at improving the livelihoods of rural communities and creating sustainable jobs.

---

Sustainable livelihood was introduced in the 1980s as a new approach to rural development to reduce and eradicate rural poverty. Achieving sustainable rural livelihoods is not possible without considering the rural livelihood assets. To understand the consequences of a change in the rural livelihood system, comprehensive and interactions-based approaches are needed to understand the complicated interactions and feedback between different factors. Accordingly, in this study, an integrated System Dynamics (SD) model was developed for sustainable rural livelihood analysis in the eastern villages of Qarabagh Ghazni, Afghanistan, where managing rural development is seriously challenging due to population growth. SD is a strong and effective approach to examine the behavior of complex systems over time. Findings illustrated that the population in the study area was increasing and the average annual population growth rate was +2.94%. Also, a significant proportion of this population was illiterate. Therefore, it seems that the requirement for skills training in this area will be higher due to population growth. An effective step can be taken to achieve sustainable rural development by increasing the skills and the desire of young people to be self-employed in rural areas. The results also showed that, by increasing per capita income in this region, the tendency to stay in the rural areas increased during the simulation period. Therefore, the government should pay special attention to increasing the household's income in order to prevent migration of the people and strengthen the desire to stay in the rural areas. The results of this research support the idea that there is the necessary potential in terms of human resources in this region to reduce poverty and improve the living conditions of people.