Management of Non-wood Forest Products in Turkey

Non-wood forest products are specific goods or services which are considered as out of wood raw materials found in nature. Some of the products are cultivated because of their high demand and produced with agricultural practices. Thyme used in herbal teas and primrose used widely as an ornamental plant are significant examples of plants both collected from nature and have agricultural production in Turkey. However, most of the non-wood forest products are still consumed by collecting them from nature. Turkey has a great capacity on non-wood forest products due to the advantage provided by high biodiversity. Additionally, people in Turkey has a wide range of experience on the utilization of wild plants and there is a significant diversity of use of non-wood forest products as a result of geographical location and historical heritage. Despite these advantages, it is difficult to mention that sustainable management of non-wood forest products is totally guaranteed in Turkey, as is the case in many other countries. The capacity of non-wood forest products in Turkey was introduced in this study. Institutional structure responsible for the management of non-wood forest products has been explained. The place of non-wood forest products in country plans and legislations regulating the ways of utilizing them were presented. As a result, although richness of non-wood forest products have been discovered and an institutional structure responsible for the diversity of these products have already been established, it was found that a way of planning and management structure ensuring the sustainability for the diversity of these species is still contentious, while there are deficiencies on the species-specific information and management processes.