Loss and compensation accounts for forest crimes in ulus region

The protection of forests, which is an important problem in Turkey, is of great importance for sustainable forest management. The acts such as illegal cutting from the forests, holding, consuming, transporting, settling into forest, occupying and benefiting, grazing, hunting and fire are considered as forest crime, which they are harmful to the forest, are of human origin and are prohibited by law. In order to reduce forest crimes and take effective measures, it is necessary to analyze them well and to calculate the damages and compensations correctly. This study aims to investigate the forest crimes in terms of their various characteristics, which have occurred in the last 10 years and are referred to the courts in the Ulus Forest Enterprise Directorate, which is important regarding forestry activities and forest crimes in the Bartın province, to compare and discuss the damage and compensation accounts made by the forest enterprise and experts in courthouse related to forest crimes and to evaluate the calculation methods scientifically. Thus, it aims to contribute to forest crime reduction and sustainable forest management. For this purpose, data on forest crimes were obtained from crime records in the Ulus Forest Enterprise Directorate and affiliated forest management chiefs (Ulusçayı, Abdipaşa, Sökü, Kumluca, Ardıç ve Drahna). Also the case files related to the forest crimes that were transferred to Ulus Courthouse were examined, and information about damages and compensation accounts were obtained from some case files and expert reports. According to the data obtained, forest crimes were evaluated according to their various characteristics by using tables and percentage method. In this context, compensation calculations prepared by the forest enterprise related to some prominent forest crimes and the compensation calculations in the case files of the judiciary were compared and the differences between them were determined. The reasons of these differences were discussed, the adequacy of the compensation costs and conformity with the scientific literature were evaluated. As a result of the investigations and evaluations, it was determined that there were 290 forest crimes in the last 10 years period, the most wood cutting, opening-settling, occupation and exploitation and fire incursion have been committed and there has been a reduction in the number of crimes in recent years. It was understood that there was no difference between the compensation amount calculated by the forest enterprise for the crimes of cutting, opening-settling, occupying and exploitation and the compensation amounts calculated by the experts. In the case of fire offense, it was found out that the compensation calculated by the expert is 15.3 times less than that of the forest enterprise, and this was due to the calculation of afforestation cost. In addition, it was found that there was a calculation approach focusing on the damages of wood raw material and the cost of seedling and reforestation, all damages in the forest ecosystem integrity were not taken into account, the compensation amounts were insufficient and were not in accordance with the Appraisal Methods of the Forest Assets in the scientific literature. According to these results, it was revealed that the damages and compensation calculations which take into account all forest functions in forest crimes should be calculated in accordance with the laws and scientific principles, and in this context, some suggestions were developed for implementation and sustainable forest management.