Background: Because of climate and forest vegetation, Turkey has regions (particularly the Mediterranean and Aegean regions) that are vulnerable to forest fires. Approximately 2000 forest fires have occurred every year for the last 20 years, with at least 48% of them caused by humans. This percentage increases to 71% when the rates of fires of unknown causes are included. In this study, legislation on Turkish forest fires was analyzed based on the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO’s) guide, “Forest Fires and the Law.” The guide was prepared by expert lawyers and addresses the basic topics of definitions; institutional setup and interinstitutional coordination planning, monitoring, and assessment; prevention and preparedness; detection and early warning and suppression; participatory and community-based approaches to fire management; fire use; rehabilitation; and law enforcement. The objective of this study was to reveal the current status of Turkish forestry legislation and its practices based on the FAO guide. Results: According to our analysis, Turkish forestry legislation has followed the FAO criteria 78.1% of the time. It is clear that effective regulations exist, with the Turkish Constitution being the foremost touchstone. The results illustrate that, no matter how strong the legislation is, a deficiency in administrative measures and a lack of public awareness make combating forest fires unsuccessful. Conclusions: The areas that need to be improved have been determined to be definitions, participatory and community-based approaches to fire management, and creating a fire line. A focus on public participation and the social approach is needed.

The biodiversity on Earth, with the many species, ecosystems, and ecological processes that constitute the natural environment, is of incalculable value to humanity. Conservationists efforts are often inspired by Turkey’s unique biological system, which is highlighted by a broad biodiversity and a 34% rate of endemism. This fragile biotic wealth is sometimes threatened by pressures for economic development. Biodiversity-rich regions tend to have more urgent needs for conservation but frequently lack the financia resources and human capacity to achieve effective protections. Even so, there are many legislative leaders, institutional administrators, and other persons who are willing to work to save protected areas, or conservation areas (although this does not mean that their resource value would be properly protected); in fact, Turkey is one of the most enlightened nations in this regard. An institutional approach has been followed to bring new perspectives to the debate about the effectiveness of protected areas in Turkey. Protected areas have decreased steadily, from 5.647.568 ha in 2012 to 3.451.947 ha in 2018. This analysis confirms that protected areas face institutional restrictions, lapses in management, and capacity limitations. There is a need for a more adaptive approach to policy-making processes related to biodiversity conservation in Turkey.

For the countries struggling with climate change, sustainable forestry is one of the greatest challenges and is difficult to define, implement, and to measure. According to the scientific community’s consensus on climate change, forests are one of the major sinks and sustainable forest management (SFM) is needed to prevent deforestation and its negative effects on natural ecosystems. Despite being a party to many international treaties/agreements related to land use policies (LUP) that are promoting SFM to protect and develop forest resources, the 2/B application in Turkish forest legislation has been causing deforestation in Turkey since the 1970s. In this study, 2/B applications–political and legal process–causing deforestation by land use change (LUC) are investigated by carrying out a legal analysis. About 500.000 ha of forests have been lost due to the 2/B application and as a LUP directly affects SFM, carbon sequestration capacities (CSC), and therefore, climate change. To exemplify this pre and post-LUC change and effect, the amount of carbon that was prevented from being absorbed as 176,7 tonnes/ha on average in a given forest area for the year 2016. There is a vital need to address the negative effects of ill-defined forest legislation to achieve SFM.