Forests have major natural attraction fortourists and play an important role in the interaction between the environmentand tourism. Turkey is facing an increasing pressure on its natural resourcesdue to uncontrolled tourism growth that is aimed at achieving short-termeconomic benefits. Hence, the main objectives of the study are to, describe themain features of Turkey’s forest resources that are used for ecotourism andrecreation, highlight the related issues in current policy documents, andemphasize the problems that have occurred during its management process. Thedata was collected by contacting officials and analyzing the contents ofnational policy documents. It was found out that the use of Turkey’s forestresources for the purpose of recreation has increased recently. However, publicauthorities have not substantially improved the visitor management andmonitoring systems. Harmonization of tourism and recreation-related utilizationwith conservation objectives, prioritization of more effective planning andcontrolling studies, and enhancing communication, cooperation, andcollaboration among the interest groups are the major suggestions of the study.
Cite this paper as: Kuvan, Y., Yurdakul Erol, S., Şahin, G, 2018. Management of forest areas used for ecotourism and recreation in Turkey. Forestist 68(2): 114-121.