Total economic value of forest resources in Turkey

Forests, like some other natural resources, perform a set of functions to meet the needs of people. It is usually impossible to state the monetary value of all the goods and services provided by forest resources. As a research area, this topic is gaining importance rapidly in Turkey as well as in other developing countries. In this study, the contribution of direct and indirect use values, option values, existence values and negative externalities to the Total Economic Value (TEV) were accounted. The most important share of Turkish forestry in its TEV was represented by the direct use values including wood and non-wood forest products. The option and existence values remained somewhat vague and difficult to calculate. In this study, the TEV concept was reviewed for Turkish forestry, and then the TEV components of forest resources were presented and discussed. From the calculations undertaken for each TEV component, it turned out that the positive TEV component of Turkish forests was about US$ 1 704 810 889,48. This figure should be considered as a minimum estimate due to the fact that the values of many externalities assumed lower bounds being based on conservative assumptions.