Analysis of the Relations Between Forestry Financial Supports and Forest Crimes

Forest crimes are among the serious threats destroying forests. To prevent the forest crimes there are various solutions proposed, such as fortification of the laws, increasing the penalties, or increasing the public awareness. This article, however, suggests an alternative solution of preventing the forest crimes by investigating the relations between the individual financial supports provided to forest villagers and the levels of various forest crime types in Turkey. The study shows that, when the forest villagers are given financial supports, the levels of illegal logging, illegal transferring of forest products, illegal expansion of private lands into forests, illegal processing of trees, and illegal pasturage crimes decrease significantly. However, the financial supports do not affect the levels of illegal occupation of forestlands crime.