Abstract

Turkey is located over the junction, called Anatolia, between Asia, Europe and Africa, and is regarded as the cradle of many civilisations throughout history. In the natural course of the history, forests together with many other natural resources in the region have been heavily utilized and thus suffered tremendously. The rate of deforestation was on the increase until 1980s but stabilized thereafter. The last statistics indicated that there is a slow but gradual increase in the area covered by forests. The increase in the forested land area can be ascribed in part to the fact that the population of rural areas has decreased dramatically due to socio-economic reasons. Also, coupled with the changes of the perceptions and attitudes of the public towards forests brought about by the increasing quality and standards of life, the reforestation and afforestation efforts have contributed significantly to the increase in the forested area over the last few decades. All these developments have also fostered an ever increasing interest in hunting tourism in forestlands. While hunting dates back to very ancient times, in Turkey where hunting tourism has a short background, a close relationship is observed between forest protection and hunting tourism. In this study, the historical development of hunting tourism in Turkey and its influence on forest protection are handled and analysed, and solutions for problems encountered in this matter are presented.

Key words: Forest protection, hunting tourism, illegal cutting, poaching, Turkey.