The Analysis of Problems in the Certification Application in State Forestry Administration in Turkey

Eurasian Journal of Agricultural Research, Aug 2018

The use of natural sources and increase in environmental damage around the world have come to a state in which it threatens the existence and functionality of forest resources as well as other natural resources’. The idea that economic development can only be achieved through the mentality of sustainable forest management supported by community involvement has ensured the improvement in certification systems of forestry and forest product. Therefore, in this study, the opinions of directors of state forestry administration in Turkey concerning the difficulties encountered or hardships which are possible to encounter in forestry and forest products certification are addressed. In this context, a questionnaire based on the face-to-face interview method has been carried out on 147 participants in manager position in 71 different State Forestry Management. While 11 of the forestry managements, on which the questionnaire is conducted, have FSC forest management certificates, 60 are non-certified businesses. At the end of this study, that bureaucratic procedures will increase within the management and that malfunctions will be experienced with respect to the operation, low level of certification awareness in Turkey, the inadequacy of collaboration between stakeholders and the incomplete forest cadastre all are determined as major obstacles to the certification. On the other hand, it has been detected that there are noteworthy differences in opinions between employees in certified companies and workers in non-certified businesses in respect to worker’s health and safety, and stakeholder collaboration. In addition, it is conducted that there are significant differences between the working hours of participants and the participants’ opinions concerning the problems encountered in the forest products certification.

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The Analysis of Problems in the Certification Application in State Forestry Administration in Turkey

Eurasian Journal of agricultural research The Analysis of Problems in the Certification Application in State Forestry Administration in Turkey Osman KOMUT1*, Atakan ?ZT?RK2 Osman KOMUT 0 Atakan ?ZT?RK 1 0 Gumushane University, Gumushane Vocational High School, Department of Forestry , Gumushane/ Turkey 1 Artvin C?oruh University, Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Engineering , Artvin/ Turkey The use of natural sources and increase in environmental damage around the world have come to a state in which it threatens the existence and functionality of forest resources as well as other natural resources'. The idea that economic development can only be achieved through the mentality of sustainable forest management supported by community involvement has ensured the improvement in certification systems of forestry and forest product. Therefore, in this study, the opinions of directors of state forestry administration in Turkey concerning the difficulties encountered or hardships which are possible to encounter in forestry and forest products certification are addressed. In this context, a questionnaire based on the face-to-face interview method has been carried out on 147 participants in manager position in 71 different State Forestry Management. While 11 of the forestry managements, on which the questionnaire is conducted, have FSC forest management certificates, 60 are non-certified businesses. At the end of this study, that bureaucratic procedures will increase within the management and that malfunctions will be experienced with respect to the operation, low level of certification awareness in Turkey, the inadequacy of collaboration between stakeholders and the incomplete forest cadastre all are determined as major obstacles to the certification. On the other hand, it has been detected that there are noteworthy differences in opinions between employees in certified companies and workers in non-certified businesses in respect to worker's health and safety, and stakeholder collaboration. In addition, it is conducted that there are significant differences between the working hours of participants and the participants' opinions concerning the problems encountered in the forest products certification. Forest management; Forestry and forest products; Certification; state forestry administration INTRODUCTION The consumption rate exceeding the tolerance of natural resources? renewal has become to an extent where it threatens the sustainability of natural sources as well as the sustainability of economic recovery (Baykal & Baykal, 2008; United Nations, 2015) . In the United Nations Conference on Environment held in Rio in 1992, it was stated that every single country needs to form its own sustainable recovery act plan by indicating that countries themselves cannot provide sustainable recovery and that environmental damage could not be decreased (Toprak, 2006) . However, processes developed in following years made obvious that public services alone would not be successful in that terms and it should be supported with social participation (?zmehmet, 2012). This process promoted the development of forestry and forest products certification systems which include the comprehension of social responsibility towards development of sustainable management of forest resources (Kiker & Putz, 1997) . Forestry and forest products certification systems rely on the basis of creating a relationship which will lead to improvement of sustainable forest management between producers and consumers with a high environment consciousness (Durusoy & T?rker, 2005; Chen & Innes, 2013) . These systems secure that raw material sources are managed according to international sustainable forest management principles and the whole production processes beginning from raw material source are based on the international criteria and in a transparent structure. In the global level, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA, Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI), Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifications systems make forest management certification (Baharuddin, 1995) . Among these certification systems, CSA stands out as the only certification system in Canada, SFI stands out as operating in Canada and USA, FSC and PEFC stand out as operating worldwide and having the widest usage area. Since 2015, the forest land taken into the scope of forest management certification around the world has reached to %10.9 of whole forest land (UNECE/FAO, 2015) . In Turkey since 1999, the legislative alignment practices have started in the forestry alongside other domains with the adaptation process to the Europe Union ( D?larslan, 2007 ). Within this context, the national sustainable forest management criteria?s and indicators were generated. The General Directorate of Forestry (GDF) has adopted FSC forest management certification and started certification practices in 2010 (F (...truncated)


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Osman KOMUT, Atakan ÖZTÜRK. The Analysis of Problems in the Certification Application in State Forestry Administration in Turkey, Eurasian Journal of Agricultural Research, pp. 102-110, Volume 2, Issue 1,