NON-WOOD FOREST PRODUCTS AS INSTRUMENT FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT: PERSPECTIVE OF FOREST VILLAGERS FROM ISTANBUL

Non-wood forest products (NWFPs) related issues have taken place among the emerging strategies of rural development in recent decades. Production and marketing of NWFPs has economic, social and environmental impacts on rural development. At this point the attitudes and problems of rural dwellers working as producers, gain importance in terms of strengthening the contribution of NWFPs to rural development. In this context, the aims of the paper are to determine the contribution of local people in NWFPs producing process, to analyse the effects of this kind of products on rural development and to examine the related problems of local people. In order to achieve the mentioned goals, questionnaires were applied in case of Istanbul and 129 villagers participated in the questionnaire survey. The data were analysed by descriptive statistics and comparative analysis. The results obtained are: there are some problems on relations between forest and villagers and also NWFPs do not have direct effect on rural economic livelihood, however, the products contribute rural food supply. Thus, legal instruments, regulatory instruments, economical instruments (taxes and incentives), information-based instruments (education-research), and public relations and participation should be strengthened to increase the contribution of NWFPs to rural development.