Draft ‘death warrant’ for the forests

Published: 2026-09-17T10:54:00+03:00 Source: birgun.net (birgun.net) Language: en

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Draft ‘death warrant’ for the forests

According to a draft obtained by BirGün, state forests will be opened to private companies for 49 years under the guise of “carbon sink forests”. Associate Professor Erdönmez said the measure would privatise the forests in every respect except their title deeds, with companies emerging as the winners.

- 17.09.2026 10:54

- Giriş: 17.09.2026 10:54 - Güncelleme: 17.09.2026 10:56

Photo: Depo Photos

Gökay Başcan

After plundering the country’s forests for a quarter of a century, the AKP government is now preparing their death warrant. Already encircled on all sides by mining projects, quarries, tourism allocations and power plants, Turkey’s forests will now be handed directly to private companies for plunder under the guise of “combating the climate crisis”. The Draft Regulation on Carbon Sink Forests, prepared by the AKP government and now circulating through the corridors of the General Directorate of Forestry (OGM), will take ecological destruction to a new stage.

The AKP government is preparing for COP31, to be held in Antalya in November, by selling off the forests. It seeks to hand state forests over to the private sector for a full 49 years on the grounds of “carbon sequestration”. Assessing the draft, Associate Professor Cihan Erdönmez of Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa’s Faculty of Forestry said: “State forests, whose privatisation is constitutionally prohibited, are being privatised in every respect except their title deeds.”

According to the draft text prepared by the OGM, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and obtained by BirGün, publicly owned forests will be turned into commercial assets that can be bought, sold and transferred among capital groups. Nature, already riddled with mining licences and profit-driven projects, will this time be encircled by a commodification drive wrapped in green packaging.

Under the draft regulation, comprising 23 articles in three sections, companies will be able to turn the carbon sequestered by forests into credits and sell them freely on the markets. Nor will it end there: timber and forest products obtained through maintenance and thinning work in these areas will be made available for commercial sale by companies with the OGM’s approval. By receiving a “Share of Carbon Revenue” from these sales, the OGM will become a financial partner in market-driven plunder instead of protecting nature.

Commenting on the purpose of the regulation, Associate Professor Erdönmez said: “It can be read as an attempt both to increase carbon sequestration as part of forestry and climate policy and to incorporate private financing and carbon-credit mechanisms into this process.”

Erdönmez recalled that, according to Turkey’s most recent official inventory, total greenhouse gas emissions in 2024 amounted to 584.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e):

“In the same year, the net carbon removal by forest areas alone was reported at approximately 55.2 million tonnes of CO₂e, while the net sink of the entire land use, land-use change and forestry sector (LULUCF) was approximately 67.1 million tonnes. These figures show that existing forest sinks correspond to approximately 9.4 per cent of Turkey’s annual gross emissions, while all LULUCF sinks correspond to approximately 11.5 per cent. However, because the draft does not tell us how many hectares will be incorporated into the system or how much additional sequestration is targeted per hectare, it is currently impossible to calculate the regulation’s total effect numerically.”

RISKING EVERYTHING FOR NEXT TO NOTHING

Erdönmez said that all the country’s forests should not be put at risk for carbon sequestration equivalent to 0.3 per cent of total emissions:

“To make a realistic estimate, if 10 per cent of all Turkey’s forests were designated as carbon sink forests and carbon sequestration in those forests were increased by 20 per cent, the additional amount of carbon that could be sequestered annually would be slightly more than one million tonnes. Let us assume record-breaking results and call it two million tonnes. That is 0.3 per cent of total emissions. Is it worth putting state forests at risk for this amount?”

THE PUBLIC WILL LOSE

Addressing the risks posed by the regulation, Erdönmez warned: “The main risk for existing forests is that the objective of increasing carbon sequestration may eventually take precedence over the forest’s other functions. Unless it is designed properly, a management approach focused on increasing carbon stocks may conflict with biodiversity, habitat structure, the water regime and the forest’s other ecosystem services.”

“If this regulation is published in its current form, Turkey will not secure any meaningful increase in its carbon sink areas,” Erdönmez said, continuing:

“But extremely valuable state forests will be transformed into private forests whose title deeds alone remain unchanged, and they will be closed to public use. Moreover, interventions carried out in these forests to increase carbon sequestration may result in major losses in terms of their other ecosystem services, such as conserving biodiversity, regulating the water regime, preventing erosion, protecting the soil, and generating social and economic benefits for society. The shorter answer is that the public will lose once again, while certain companies will profit.”

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled OGM koridorlarında dolaşıyor: Ormanların ölüm fermanı ‘taslağı’, published in BirGün newspaper on September 17, 2026.