• Province based forest cover (%)

    Forest Cover Percentage


    0% - 3% 4% - 9% 10% - 20% 21% - 35% 36% - 53%

    Productive



    Degraded

Light blue contour depicts the 600 mm precipitation line for present time and the brown contour depicts its future (2071 – 2099) position.

Forest / Bush Fires

Forestry is not a big sector in Turkey, although it has sizeable forest cover, which accounts for roughly 21.5 million hectares (amounting to about 27% of the total area of Turkey). Half of the forest cover is classified as productive and the other half as degraded.

Previous records of forest fires indicate that the forests along the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Marmara regions are already at high risk. The number of forest fires increases substantially in hot summer days when these areas, characterized by a typical Mediterranean climate, receive little or no rain.

As the climate change projections indicate that the temperatures will continue to rise, while rainfall will decrease. More forests fires can be expected in these areas. The areas with a lower number of fires today may also be subjected to more forest fires. It may be highly difficult to sustain the present forest cover when the air gets warmer and dryer, especially in the southern and western parts of Turkey.