Hayrettin Karaca Old Growth Forests Project

The project, prepared in collaboration with the General Directorate of Forestry within the scope of the TEMA Foundation's Fund for Raising Awareness on the Protection and Ecological Importance of Natural Forest Areas, is a project we attribute to the late Hayrettin Karaca, one of our Founding Honorary Presidents. Implementation began in 2021. The project, which will cover the years 2021-2024, focused on the Eastern Black Sea Region due to its rich biological diversity and the presence of largely intact natural forest areas.

The project aims to raise public awareness about the importance of protecting natural old forests, to establish selection criteria for natural old forests, to identify candidate areas that could fall into the category of natural old forests in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Türkiye, to protect them and/or to contribute to sustainable management in forestry.

• Determination of old-growth forest candidate sites in the Eastern Black Sea Region through stand ages in forest management plan data in GIS environment,
• Review of academic studies on the criteria for determining old-growth forests in Turkey/abroad,
• Organizing a workshop to establish old-growth forest selection criteria,
• Investigations in candidate old-growth forests identified in GIS environment in the Eastern Black Sea Region Forests,
• Communication activities will be carried out to raise public awareness on the ecological importance of protecting these forests.

Domestic and international literature reviews on natural old-growth forests were conducted in collaboration with experts working on the project. In 2021, areas suitable for field surveys were identified using GIS software based on the Eastern Black Sea Region forest management plans, and forest areas with an average diameter greater than 36 cm were mapped. Field surveys began in Artvin province, and 69 forest areas with an average diameter greater than 36 cm and an area greater than 50 hectares were surveyed. These surveys identified 19 Natural Old-Growth Forests in Artvin province, totaling 3,820 hectares. With the contributions of the General Directorate of Forestry, the Department of Forest Administration and Planning, a 2,795-hectare area located in 19 different micro-catchments was registered as Natural Old-Growth Forests in forest management plans.

Mapping studies were conducted prior to fieldwork to identify potential natural-aged forests in Giresun and Ordu provinces in 2022. Field surveys were conducted to identify candidate natural-aged forests identified on the map. Thirty-three sites in Ordu and Giresun provinces, totaling 1,642 hectares—the size of an average of 2,000 football fields—were registered as natural-aged forests.

In 2023, research was conducted in the provinces of Trabzon, Gümüşhane, and Rize to identify candidate natural-aged forests. Six sites were identified as candidate natural-aged forests: one in Trabzon, four in Gümüşhane, and one in Rize. In the second half of 2023, drone footage was taken of natural-aged forests in Giresun province, and an informative video explaining why natural-aged forests should be protected was prepared and shared on the TEMA Foundation's corporate social media accounts.

In 2024, research was conducted on candidate natural-aged forests in the provinces of Trabzon and Rize. We identified eight candidate natural-aged forest sites totaling 1,691 hectares, five in Trabzon and three in Rize. The registration process for six candidate sites, totaling 754 hectares, identified in the provinces of Gümüşhane, Trabzon, and Rize, is ongoing.