Özet:

After the 1970s, the energy demand for wood has increased, all over the world. After the 1990s, with the effect of increasing population, sustainability of forest resources has become crucial. According to FAO and UNEP (2020) the world's forests have decreased 4.74 million hectares in the last 10 years. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of meeting the raw material demand for wood from our natural forest resources in Turkey. Today, 11.8 million m3 of raw material is needed for the 21 Particle and Fibre Board enterprises in Turkey. The country has 22.9 million hectares, 1.7 billion m3 of forest assets. Raw material demand for wood is met by two different methods: importation or production. Although the need for raw materials is increasing day by day, it is seen that the import value has decreased from 1.5 billion dollars to 440 million dollars in the last 7 years, while the export value has increased by 250 million dollars. In the same period, the amount of industrial wood, produced by Turkey by using local resources, has increased by 11 million m3. In order to meet this demand, our state forests are seen as the first choice due to the high costs of import. Having this policy has two possible consequences. It causes a decrease in the number of species in mixed forests. The fact that the wood production capability of Turkey's forests is not sufficient to meet all the needs causes the future of our forest assets to be endangered.

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