Socioeconomic analysis of non-wood forest products in the Bartin province

In this thesis study, it is aimed to determine the most important non-wood forest products (NWFP) in the Bartın province, to examine their production and marketing processes and thus to determine their contribution to sustainable rural development. In the study, the data obtained from the records of the Bartın and Ulus Forest Enterprises Directorate and the information obtained from the semi-structured interviews carried out in 2017 in the local product markets, herbs' sellers and forest management directorates were used as material. For data evaluation; ranking, percentage, classification, analysis and synthesis methods were used and some data were visualized and interpreted with the help of tables and figures. As a result of the study, the most important NWFPs, their production regions and their potentials, production and marketing processes were determined. According to this, it was determined that the most important NWFPs in the Bartın province were chestnut, linden, walnut, rosehip, laurel, cranberry, damson, thyme, blackberry, arbutus, blueberry, oyster mushroom, bloody mushroom and bitter mushroom. The forest enterprises in the Bartın province received a total of 486,185.79 TL (as of 2017) tariff income from the annual average of 6,083,119 kg NWFP legally collected by the forest villagers in the period of 2016-2017. Moreover, it was determined that the added value was created because of the collection, processing and sale of the NWFPs, input to many sectors, positive and above-average effects on forest-village relations, migration prevention, employment and rural development. According to the research findings, some suggestions have been developed to improve the production and marketing processes of NWFPs and to increase their impact on sustainable rural development.