Social assessment for the Turkey forest sector review

OCIAL DEVELOPMENT PAPERS A ENV ' ON 1 E N A-A '.YAN S CiY A ', L UST A; N AB LE ' V F LO PM E N-r NET WORK Paper Number 34 22373 November 1999 Social Assessment for the Turkey Forest Sector Review AyUe Kudat with B. Bfilent Ozbilgin, Nezih Kuleyin, Ismet Yalqzn, and Ozta, Ayhan THE WORLD BANK   Social Development Papers Paper Number 34 November 1999 Social Assessment for the Turkey Forest Sector Review AyUe Kudat with B. Bulent Ozbilgin, Nezih Kuleyin, Ismet Yalpn, and OztaU Ayhan  This publication was developed and produced by the Social Development Family of the World Bank. The Environment, Rural Development, and Social Development Families are part of the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (ESSD) Network. The Social Development Family is made up of World Bank staff working on social issues. Papers in the Social Development series are not formal publications of the World Bank. They are published informally and circulated to encourage discussion and comment within the development community. Copies of this paper are available from: Social Development The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433 USA Fax: 202-522-3247 E-mail: sdpublications@worldbank.org  Contents Acknowledgments iii Executive Summary 1 Introduction 1 Social Assessment 1 Recommendations 8 Community-Based Pilot Projects 11 1. Introduction 14 2. Social Assessment 16 Objectives and Methodology of the SA 16 Key Findings of the Stakeholder Workshop 18 3. Background 20 Turkey's Forests 20 Legal and Institutional Framework 21 Forest Villages 24 4. Infrastructure in Forest Villages 34 Roads and Transport 34 Water and Irrigation 35 Education 37 Health Care 37 Electricity and Mass Media 39 Economic Conditions in Forest Villages 41 Income Levels and Dependency on the Forest 48 Types of Credit 66 Ownership and Use of Forest Resources 71 Other Stakeholder Perspectives 76 5. Recommendations 96 Poverty Reduction 96 i  Annex 1. Survey Design and Sampling Procedures 107 Annex 2. Ardditional Tables 124 Annex 3. Calculation of Value Contribution of Fuelwood in Forest Villages 135 ii  Acknowledgments This report is the result of a collaborative effort report. Cristina Tumale-Habib desktopped the involving individuals from several organiza- document. Rural and Urban Development tions. Task manager Francois Wencelius and Foundation translated the final report into World Bank resident mission staff members Turkish. Nedret Durutan and Cuneyt Okan made sig- nificant contributions in designing and imple- We also gratefully acknowledge the collabo- menting the project successfully. ration of the local and headquarters staffs of the Ministry of Forestry, the staff of a large Special thanks are due to sociologist Oya number of local representatives of various Agikalm, who assisted during the initial phase ministries, local governments, the Agricultural of the project, and to sociologists Yuksel Vardar, Bank, private sector representatives, trades- Omer Kazanoglu, Buket Genc, and Yuksel men, merchants, craftsmen, members of non- Canturk, who helped conduct the fieldwork. governmental organizations (NGOs), hun- Can Adamoglu contributed to research and dreds of village headmen and members of the writing of the report. John W. Fraser Stewart, village councils, and thousands of men and Shelton H. Davis, Michael Cernea and Augusta women who spent hours with the social as- Molnar contributed valuable comments to the sessment team. . .   Executive Summary Introduction tory. The condition of Turkey's forests, in terms of wood-stocking rates and productiv- In November 1996, the World Bank met ity, appears to have begun to improve. Less with the Government of Turkey Treasury, the information is available regarding the loss of State Planning Organization (SPO), and the biological diversity from Turkey's forests, of Ministry of Forestry (MOF) to discuss the which approximately 3,000 species of indig- possible content and priorities of the World enous flora hold major international signifi- Bank country assistance strategy (CAS) in cance. relation to agriculture, rural development, While outmigration tends to reduce pres- and the environment. During these discus- sure on forest resources, 9 million of Turkey's sions, the Turkish government expressed its poorest people continue to live on forest concerns about the need to safeguard the eco- lands. According to the official perspective, nomic, social, and environmental value of the encroachment of agricultural land use, Turkish forest resources, and to improve the unsustainable grazing, and the use of forest economic condition of the 9 million people products (primarily fuelwood) continue to living on forest lands. The government then present major threats to the forests. Accord- asked the World Bank to address these issues ing to the forest villagers' perspective, how- in the CAS and expressed its intention to con- ever, it is the forest fires that present the duct a forestry sector review with a view to- greatest threat to the forests. The analysis of ward identifying priority problems and the empirical data collected and systematic potential actions. The government also re- interviews of a broad range of stakeholders quested Bank technical assistance and finan- show, however, that factors associated with cial support in this area. It was decided that forest degradation are region- and commu- part of this support would include a social nity-specific, and require solutions with simi- assessment (SA). lar specificity. A large proportion of Turkey's rural population lives in or around forests and Social Assessment earns its living from forests or forest-related sectors. According to 1997 statistics, there are A social assessment (SA) consists of: more than 18,000 forest villages in Turkey. According to the government, invest- * Identifying key stakeholders and an ments in forest management, combined with appropriate institutional framework for outmigration from rural communities, has their participation in policies, projects, resulted in a reversal of the trend toward deg- and implementation radation of forest resources that has been * Evaluating the social impacts of existing prevalent throughout much of Turkey's his- policies on various stakeholder groups 1  SocialAssessmentfor the Turkey Forest Sector Review and undertaking similar analyses for highest reliance on grazing were also sub- proposed policy changes stantially under-represented.2 Nevertheless,