Areal examination of afforestation practices in Turkey

Abstract

As in whole the world, unproductive forest area is one of the important economic and socio-cultural problems in our country. According to 2015’ inventory of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the forest area, which was 4 billion 128 million ha in 1990, decreased to 3 billion 999 million ha in 2015, and in 2010-2015, an average of 3 million ha of forest area was degraded each year in worldwide. Degradation process occurred especially in natural forests continues throughout the world. Turkey has 22.74 million ha of forest which of 9.6 million ha is degraded subjected to afferestation practices according to the latest inventory of 2019. New degraded forests can be added to these unproductive forest areas due because of forest fires, illegal utilization and climate change. Silvicultural activities such as afforestation, rehabilitation and regeneration are among the most important practices in conversion of the unproductive/degraded forests to productive forests. In this review article, it is aimed to contribute to afforestation practices by examining together with other forest establishment practices in the light of the last forestry inventory.