Technical, economic and social analysis of wood charcoal production in Malatya

Charcoal is used traditionally for various purposes in Turkey. To meet the demand, charcoal mounds that have wood piles are operated by local enterprises. Malatya is one of the most important provinces in Turkey in terms of charcoal production. Charcoal production from firewood is not harmful for forests and forestry operations, and studying this production activity that has some positive impact on rural development and local economy. Thus, investigation of sustainable production of charcoal with regard to technique, economic and social, determination of experienced problems and preparation of recommendations are very important. In this study, official records of government agencies and organizations, field surveys and obtained data from unstructured interviews were evaluated. Then the charcoal production processes, raw material supply, usage purposes and marketing opportunities, relations with forest and forestry activities, social and economic impacts of charcoal productions were investigated. According to these, charcoal production makes an annual total of 2 700 000 TL contribute to the provincial economy and rural development and provides 57,600 man-days of employment. Also the bottlenecks experienced in charcoal production and some recommendation related to improve the charcoal production processes for the forest and charcoal enterprise managers.