Reduction in size of forestlands and Duzce case

Since government has not completed the designation of the forestland officially, forestlands can not be adequately protected in Turkey. Since 1920?s more than 30 laws were made about forestry. Up to now forestry law 6831 has been changed 20 times. With the legal regulations about 500 000 ha forestlands were converted into other uses by cadastral survey commissions. When the article 1744 was accepted in 1974, it was considered that welfare of forest villagers will be improved and eventually pressures on forestlands will be decreased. However, poverty problem of the forest villager has not been solved. Besides there has been intensive controversial discussions about these lands named 2B lands. Therefore, in the first part of this study, the evolution of Turkish forestry and conversion of forestlands via legal regulations were investigated. In the second part of the study, data were collected about 2B lands from cadastral survey reports for Duzce province where forestry operations have been done intensively. With the application of article 2B 7.5 % of the forestland has been converted into other uses in Duzce province. In Duzce province, 95 % of the converted land areas is used for hazelnut farming. The rest is used for garden, poplar plantation and housing purposes. About 85 % of the occupant of the 2B lands resides in the villages. Keywords: Article 2B, forest, forest cadastral survey, forest villagers, Duzce