04 Apr Sustainable land management in Turkey
The 6th Mediterranean Forest Week in Lebanon hosted a discussion on the ‘best practices for monitoring and evaluation systems used in sustainable land management in Turkey’. Four presentations provided a superb insight to research, processes and developments in the field.
Bahtiyar Kurt, Natural Resources and Biodiversity Cluster Lead at UNDP Turkey, presented a Forest Management System, a simulator for a complete set of realistic management alternatives with a forest growth model for all stands in a planning unit. It is an optimization tool based on forest management objectives. With many people involved in the project, the ‘dashboard’ guides the user through the planning process providing the status of each step. This system will be established in the next few months. This is a pioneering first step in a decision support tool for forest management
Evren Cetin, introduced a set of M&E Systems Used in Desertification, Erosion and Flood Control. The watershed Monitoring and Assessment (M&E) System is aimed to reduce the cost of monitoring, to take necessary precautions by performing quick and up to date monitoring and to ensure that investments can be successfully achieved through effective monitoring of the projects carried out in the basin and to achieve significant gains for conservation of natural resources. The system includes 7 criteria and 48 indicators for desertification. The database structure of the ‘National Soil Database’, for example, was drafted subsequent to the encounters with representatives from Forestry and Agriculture sectors and academics. The software was developed and 13 data layers were scored based on expert opinion to identify the areas where potential afforestation, rehabilitation, soil conservation and pasture rehabilitation can be determined. Finally, a flood sensitivity model and a dynamic erosion model were developed.
Mr. Umut ADIGUZEL, National Monitoring System used for biodiversity Inventory
The biodiversity in Turkey is rich and high. Field studies were carried out with 980 subject experts and academics. The proposals are to:
1) Determine the current situation of taxon of flora and fauna species of Turkey,
2) Collecting new data of flora and fauna habitat types,
3) Grouping the data according endemism, IUCN, BERN CITES,
4) Monitoring the indicator species and their habitats,
5) Determine threats to species.
Standard data is collected on the field. Following the development of a ‘Noah’s Ark’ database, modeling the ecosystem will be possible.
Mr. Ozgur BALCI, Management of Non-Wood products in Turkey
Turkey is especially active in forestry at the international level. There are 11,466 natural plant species of which 3,649 endemic.
There are some problems with illegal collection. Inventory and planning efforts were poured in this direction using a software based system for the NWFP.
Thirty eight action plans were implemented for truffle, gum, laurel, resin and non-wood products. The result of all this work will contribute 100 million dollars to the local economy and 800 million dollars to the national economy.
Successes are already visible. There are now 475 honey forests in Turkey. This increase has moved Turkey from 6th to 2nd place in world honey production.
Blogpost by Dimitris Tsimplinas