Turkey’s forest coverage increases

ISTANBUL

The forest coverage of Turkey is increasing regularly every year with maintenance, rehabilitation, afforestation and various action plans.

According to information received from the General Directorate of Forestry (OGM) officials, the forest presence in Turkey has increased by 10 percent in the last 50 years.

The forest asset, which was 20.2 million hectares in 1973, reached 22.7 million hectares in 2019, while this figure was around 21.3 million hectares in 2012 and 22.3 million hectares in 2015.

According to these inventory results, the forest lands have increased by 2.5 million hectares over the last 50 years.

According to the data, 94.72 percent of forests are woods and 5.28 percent of trees are for the purpose of cutting.

The tree stock of Turkey’s forests is the total of growing stock of barked cylindrical stem volume of the trunks with diameters of 8 cm or more.

The main reasons for this achievement are the increase in forested lands and improvements in degraded forest lands.

As the total annual increase in forests was 28 million cubic meters in 1973, it reached 47.2 million cubic meters last year.

Some 628,000 hectares of forests were maintained and approximately 150 million liras ($22,5 million) were spent for these works within the scope of the action plan implemented for the maintenance of forests in Turkey.

Forests with broad-leaved species (oak, fagus, alder, chestnut and others) constitute 39 percent of the overall forested lands, while 61 percent are of coniferous species such as pine, abies, spruce and cedar.

Nearly all the forests in Turkey are state-owned and administrated by the General Directorate of Forestry.

Privately-owned forested lands constitute less than 1 percent of the total amount.

Turkey’s forests are managed by forest chief engineers in line with management plans that run on cycles of 10 to 20 years.