The Foresters' Association of Turkey (Turkish: ''Türkiye Ormancılar Derneği'', or TOD) is a Turkish

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

society related to

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

s, established in 1924. The organization is today actively involved in educational presentations dealing with problems of forest usage as well as the promotion of

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of nature-oriented tourism intended to contribute to the Ecological conservation, conservation of the natural environment, generally defined as being minimally impactful, and including providing both contributions to conserv ...

History

The Foresters' Association of Turkey (TOD) was founded on 26 December 1924, only one year after the establishment of the

Republic of Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. The organization began publishing its official magazine, ''Orman ve Av,'' (forest and hunting) in 1928. The organization has also produced numerous other publications not of a

periodical Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annu ...

nature. In 1951 the TOD gained the official status of "Association for the Public Welfare", and became the first environmental association holding this title. In 1956 the TOD started a big

afforestation Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no recent tree cover. There are three types of afforestation: natural Regeneration (biology), regeneration, agroforestry and Tree plantation, tree plan ...

project, namely, "Atatürk Ormanı," and the outcome of the project is now a spectacular forest in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

in the

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish language, Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a prestigious public university, public Institute of technology, technical university located in Ankara, ...

campus. The TOD, which was founded by forest engineers who worked in stream rehabilitation,

erosion control Erosion control is the practice of preventing or controlling wind or water erosion in agriculture, land development, coast, coastal areas, Bank (geography), river banks and construction. Effective erosion controls handle surface runoff and are ...

reforestation Reforestation is the practice of restoring previously existing forests and woodlands that have been destroyed or damaged. The prior forest destruction might have happened through deforestation, clearcutting or wildfires. Three important purpose ...

, afforestation, establishing wild animal regeneration stations, recreation areas, etc. prepared a "Green Book" and affected Turkish society on the eve of the new Turkish constitution in 1960.

Objectives

The overall objective of the TOD is to establish the healthy environment for today and the future and to universalize the love of nature. To reach the objective the TOD aims to contribute to the development of forestry science and technology, and contribute to solving forestry related problems with the scientific approach concerning the needs. The TOD organizes various

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

activities such as seminars, panels, meetings etc. aiming to increase awareness of forest

s and nature. The Foresters' Association of Turkey's Ecotourism Group was founded in 2000 and started organizing non-profit ecotourism and ecosystem tours and promoting

in Turkey in 2001. The participants of those non-profit tours are informed about the environment and ecosystems by voluntary experts of the ecotourism group. Apart from the tours, the group organizes activities for school kids as well.

References

External links

TOD official website.
(Turkish language content.)
Global forest watch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foresters' Association of Turkey Forestry in Turkey Forestry societies Natural history of Anatolia