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The Impact of ORKÖY Activities on Sustainable Forest Management in

İstanbul Province, Turkey

Article  in  Small-scale Forestry · April 2021

DOI: 10.1007/s11842-021-09479-4

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Small-scale Forestry (2021) 20:517–542
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-021-09479-4

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

The Impact of ORKÖY Activities on Sustainable Forest

Management in İstanbul Province, Turkey

İsmet Daşdemir1   · Murat Köse2

Accepted: 3 April 2021 / Published online: 27 April 2021

© Steve Harrison, John Herbohn 2021

Abstract
ORKÖY (Forest and Village Relations) activities are carried out by the General
Directorate of Forestry in Turkey in order to develop forest villages, improve for-
est and village relations, and reduce the pressure on forests. This study aims to
investigate the impacts of ORKÖY activities on sustainable forest management in
the İstanbul province of Turkey. For this purpose, the data of ORKÖY and forestry
activities between 2012 and 2016 were collected from the records of the İstanbul
Regional Directorate of Forestry (İRDF), and some information was gathered
by means of questionnaires with forest villagers and forest enterprise managers.
The data were evaluated using tables, descriptive statistics, and correlation analy-
sis. In this study, the amount of the economic and social monetary credits given
by ORKÖY department affiliated to the İRDF and their annual average economic
contributions were determined. The fuelwood rent provided to forest villagers, the
effectiveness and satisfaction levels with ORKÖY activities, the sufficiency of the
credits, and the informational and training-consulting services were explored. The
results show that ORKÖY provided a total of US$ 2,529,040 and an annual US$
505,808 of credits to 575 households located in 126 villages of the İstanbul province
during 2012–2016. ORKÖY performed 3007 informational and training-consulting
activities in 129 villages and provided at least US$ 256 fuelwood subsidies per year
per household for the forest villagers. The effectiveness and satisfaction level of
ORKÖY activities was at the medium level in the İstanbul province. The contri-
butions of the activities to the prevention of migration were weak, and to the pre-
vention of unemployment were at the weak-medium level. Thus, ORKÖY activities
were found to be effective and successful in rural development and sustainable forest
management at the “medium” level (50 percent out of 100). In order to increase this
rate, the quantity and quality of the informational and training-consulting services
of ORKÖY need to be increased, and the health insurance of the government needs
to be expanded to cover the rural population, and all state institutions should take
responsibility to contribute to rural development.

Extended author information available on the last page of the article

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The Impact of ORKÖY Activities on Sustainable Forest Management… 539

Although there are other studies addressing sustainable rural development/sustain-

able forest management in the literature, common metrics and approaches need to be
developed for the comparison of the results of such activities. In the future, similar
studies colud be conducted in other regions of Turkey and in other developing coun-
tries so that the results of the studies can be compared more efficiently.
The main objectives of rural development are poverty reduction, sustainable man-
agement of natural resources, and the development of communities. Those who live
in rural areas and forest villages are some of the poorest people of society. There-
fore, development programs that are developed to reduce poverty need to include
considerations of people living in rural areas and forest villages. Considering the
economic, social, cultural, and physical environment characteristics of each region,
consistent government policies should be implemented for forest villages and rural
areas in terms of education, health, social services, employment, and technical
infrastructure.

Acknowledgement  We would like to thank the staff of the İstanbul Regional Directorate of Forestry for
assisting in the data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

İsmet Daşdemir1   · Murat Köse2

* İsmet Daşdemir
isdasdemir@hotmail.com
1
Department of Forest Engineering, Faculty of Forestry, Bartın University, Bartın, Turkey
2
Department of Forest Engineering, Faculty of Forestry, Bursa Technical University, Bursa,
Turkey

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