According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, forest cover increased from 20.2 million hectares in 1972 to 23.3 million hectares in 2023. However, despite the increase in forest cover, forested areas are decreasing. In many areas considered as forest areas, there is not a single tree. Mineral exploration, construction under the name of tourism zones, cutting down trees on the grounds of "security" and fires are among the main reasons for the disappearance of forested areas. 

 

Most recently, with the decision of AKP Chair and President Tayyip Erdoğan, a total of 1 million 17 thousand square meters of land in 9 provinces was excluded from forest areas. According to data from the Turkish Foresters Association (TOD), from 1956 to 2023, 911 thousand hectares of forest areas were allocated for mining, energy, tourism and zoning. However, many of these areas are still considered forest areas according to the ministry. 

 

FOREST FIRES 

 

Speaking about the destruction of forested areas, Ahmet Hüsrev Özkara, Chair of the Turkish Foresters Association, stated that many areas have been burned due to fires from the past to the present. Özkara said: "Forest fire statistics have been kept for 87 years. Between 1937 and 2023, an average of one thousand 408 forest fires occurred annually and an average of 21 thousand 607 hectares of land was burned annually. Unfortunately, this picture has worsened in the last 10 years and an average of 2 thousand 568 fires broke out annually. The average annual area burned was 23 thousand 326 hectares." 

 

Özkara drew attention to the fact that forest areas were opened for development, mining or energy fields on the grounds that they were "unreclaimable and unrecoverable". Özkara stated that 650 thousand hectares of forest areas have been lost since 1973 with this method. 

 

'DISASTER' WARNING

 

Pointing to the importance of forested areas, "Forests prevent flood disasters, landslides. They produce oxygen by absorbing carbon. However, forests have been so destroyed that they cannot fulfill these tasks. There are areas where there is not a single tree but they are considered forests" Özkara said and warned that if the legal regulations that pave the way for the destruction of forested areas continue, possible natural disasters will continue. 

 

'318 MILLION HECTARES DESTROYED'

 

Stating that the destruction of forests accelerates global warming, Co-Spokesperson of Polen Ecology Institute Onur Yılmaz said: "Since 1850, 2/3 of greenhouse gas emissions have been caused by production activities based on fossil fuels, while 1/3 has been caused by land change and deforestation." 

 

Stating that the destruction of forested areas caused by the activities of capitalists endangers all living things, "According to World Forest Watch, 318 million hectares of forested areas were destroyed in the world between 2001-2021. Only 1 in 3 of these are due to forest fires. The rest is due to deforestation activities" Yılmaz said. 

 

'DATA DOES NOT REFLECT REALITY'

 

Referring to the General Directorate of Forestry's claims that forest cover has increased, Yılmaz said: "The data does not reflect reality. In 20 years, average annual afforestation decreased by 55 percent compared to the previous 20 years. In addition, the carbon sequestration capacity of forests has also halved from 2017 to 2021 with the boom in wood production. New evidence is emerging every day that this logging is carried out by the state in Kurdistan with the help of village guards." 

 

Stating that forest areas are being fragmented for RES, mines and hotels, Yılmaz said, "Of the total 810 thousand hectares of forest area allocated for non-forestry uses, 47 percent, that is 382 thousand hectares, are allocations to the energy and mining sectors made only in the last 10 years."

 

Stating that the data on forests is distorted just like the inflation data, Yılmaz said that the destruction is causing major climate disasters, severe pollution problems and drought, "Already today, we are seeing fluctuations in agriculture, lack of water, and the destruction of settlement infrastructures" Yılmaz said. 

 

THE AIMS OF THE SLAUGHTER IN KURDISTAN

 

Yılmaz said that there are different reasons for the concentration of deforestation especially in Kurdistan. Yılmaz said that the first reason is that capitalists can move more easily in Kurdistan. Yılmaz said another reason is the aim to destroy the Kurds' struggle for freedom. 

 

Pointing out that the AKP government is carrying out forest slaughter in Kurdistan and wants to force Kurds to migrate, Yılmaz said: "It is calculated that if there is no geography to live in, the people will migrate and assimilate. In this respect, the struggle for ecology in Kurdistan must be one of the most important elements of the national liberation struggle. Deforestation is a paramilitary state activity in colonial geographies. In Kurdistan, it is also practiced by village guards. Many illegal commercial relations are also established. When we trace the industrial areas of Anatolia in which the wood obtained from here serves the interests of whom, both the networks of collaboration and the state institutions in charge are revealed. The aim is to make a profit, to make the geography lifeless, to spread war to nature."

 

'DEFORESTATION IS AN EFFECTIVE WEAPON'

 

Stating that Turkey is also slaughtering forests in the Federated Kurdistan Region, Yılmaz said: "The Barzani administration has carried its cooperation with fascist Turkey far beyond a trade dependency relationship. It has now reached the desperation of implementing the plans of Turkish capital to protect its dominance. KDP became a partner in the occupation. Deforestation is an effective weapon for the Turkish state's need to hold on to the area with invasion attacks. Forest areas are also wetlands in general. The loss of the forest means the evacuation of the villages here. It means that the geography is stripped of both trees and people and left naked."  

 

CALL TO ECOLOGY ORGANIZATIONS

 

Emphasizing that the struggle for ecology knows no borders and that the struggle is a whole, Yılmaz continued as follows: "Therefore, wherever we are, we need to deal with deforestation in its own context, that is, within the reality of war, and make it an issue of struggle. It is obvious that the ecological organizations in Turkey and Kurdistan have failed to raise a strong voice against the war. The biggest reason for this is that when it comes to Kurdistan, the state stick comes down very hard. It is because we cannot defend the tree in Kurdistan that the tree in Akbelen, for example, can be cut down so recklessly. The bar of the price that those in the struggle will bear is set there. Just as nature is limitless, the struggle of ecologists must be limitless."

 

MA / Berivan Kutlu