Assessment of cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.) rehabilitation studies within the rehabilitation action plan: Dursunbey Forestry Directorate example

Cranberry is one of the species which is grown naturally in Anatolia, has been put into practice of rehabilitation in order to ensure sustainability for this species, as a result of unplanned and excessive exploitation. In this study the rehabilitation practices on the cranberry in the areas of Balıkesir Forestry Directorate, Dursunbey Forest Management Directorate were examined and determination of the idea that, how the forest villagers were affected from the practices and their aspects, was made. For this purpose, a questionnaire was applied with face to face interviews with 173 people in the study area and the data were analyzed by using SPSS 20 statistical package program. The normality of distribution of the data was checked by Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests and the data did not show normal distribution. However, it was assumed that the skewness and kurtosis values remained between -1.5 and +1.5 and the data were assumed to have normal distribution. Therefore, data were analyzed by using factor analysis and variance analysis techniques. Additionally, frequencies and percentages were used to explain the subject. According to the results of the study, socio-economic problems such as low income and migration affected the villagers negatively, the rehabilitation practices contributed significantly to the yield of cranberry trees and it was stated that the rehabilitation activities were welcomed by the local people. However, the continuation of the maintenance activities after rehabilitation is important for the success of the studies. Another important point is the use of cranberries should be done in a planned way.