Turkey : Forestry Sector Review

The report identifies the challenges,
and opportunities the forestry sector faces in Turkey, where
twenty five percent of the country's land area is
covered by forests, with significant economic,
environmental, and cultural functions. The challenges
identified in the review include poverty, land tenure, the
need to establish multi-purpose, participatory forest
management planning, and, to control soil erosion in
degraded areas, including the need to restore the
sector's financial viability. Following an introductory
review on economic growth, urbanization, and new demands on
forest resources, the study analyzes the liberalization of
the policy framework, the reform of state-owned enterprises,
and the public expenditure restraints. The sustained
realization of forestry development goals in the context of
strengthened economic discipline, should lead to the
planning, and management of forest resources at both the
national, and local levels; to a decrease in forest areas
managed primarily for wood production; to an expansion of
protected areas, and national parks, covering a wide range
of Turkey's natural ecosystems; and, to reforestation
levels rising significantly the degraded forest lands,
supported by active communal participation. This will be
achieved based on suggestions on policies, and institutional
arrangements, and on consensus development on sectoral
priorities. Recommendations suggest pilot approaches to
biodiversity conservation; reconsideration of public sector
agencies' organizational structures; integrated rural
development initiatives to support poverty alleviation,
including institutional target programs for the poorest
forest-dependent people; and, development of community based
resource management approaches, mainstreamed through
supportive regulations, guidelines, and budgetary processes.