Shifting Priorities: How Amendments in Forestry Law Impact Resource Management, the Case of Türkiye

In Türkiye, where nearly all forests are publicly owned, the government exercises substantial authority over forest management and utilization. This study examines how legislative and regulatory changes in forestry have shaped local outcomes, focusing on the tension between economic priorities and ecological sustainability. Methodologically, the study combines Hamilton’s institutional approach, highlighting the role of legal frameworks, administrative routines, and authority structures in shaping governance, with Foucault’s concept of governmentality, which emphasizes how power is exercised through norms, regulations, and technical knowledge. This dual framework is applied through a qualitative document analysis of forestry laws, development plans, and policy papers. The findings show that while official statistics suggest an overall expansion of forest area, regional patterns reveal increasing pressures on natural forests to supply industrial raw materials, and growing reliance on non-forestry permits within forest boundaries. These outcomes demonstrate that governance mechanisms and legislative amendments have systematically prioritized economic utilization. The study concludes that the Turkish case illustrates how institutionalized governance choices, mediated through law and regulation, may simultaneously enable resource mobilization and accelerate long-term forest degradation. These insights emphasize the need for policy frameworks that better balance economic development with ecological preservation, offering lessons for sustainable forest governance globally.