Valuing forest products and services in Turkey : a pilot study of Bolu forest area

The country’s forest areas occupy 21.7 million ha (approximately 27.6 percent of its total surface area), and are inhabited by close to 10 percent of its total population. The forest sector generates a variety of timber and non-timber products and eco-services. The Turkish government has put great effort into reforestation and forest management, increasing the total area of forests. In their tenth national development plan (2014-2018), the Turkish Government has decided to take a series of actions, including quantifying the value of natural resources and their ecosystem services and taking them into account in making and implementing policy decisions. In response to the government’s request for technical assistance in valuing natural resources, the World Bank assisted the Directorate General of Forestry (DGF) under the Turkish Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs (MoFWA) in conducting a pilot study in the Bolu forest area to identify and quantify the forest products and services used by humans and assess the possibility to expand and scale up forest valuation. The purpose of this report is to summarize the study’s findings and discuss its policy implications and next steps. The report contains six chapters, chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two provides an overview of the forest sector in Turkey, from physical conditions to institutional aspects. Chapter three presents the justification and application of forest valuation and accounting, while the valuation methods for forest products and services are introduced in chapter four. Chapter five discusses the findings and results of the Bolu pilot study. The policy implications, areas for improvement, and recommendations for scaling up are discussed in chapter six.