Research of The Uludağ National Park in Terms of Resource Economy

Abstract

The potential of forest-mountain ecosystem services as a source of sustainable development has been widely recognized. This paper aims to provide comprehensive economic value resource parameters of Uludağ National Park (UNP), the region of Bursa, Turkey. In this context, 10 ecosystem parameters were determined under 3 categories. The first of these groups is the supplier parameters. Group of supplier parameters consists of crop production, animal production, industrial and firewood production, grazing, beekeeping and non-wood forest products. Group of regulatory parameters as regulators of the ecosystem consists of biodiversity, carbon sequestration and water resources. Within the scope of socio-economic parameter, there is tourism-recreation value.Valution is based on a wide variety of techniques, drawings on market prices, results of local surveys and other econometric valuation methods called as Faustman and Hartman. It shows that at UNP, water resources provide annual benefits of about 147 046 $ ha-1, secondly biodiversity provides a 15 312 $ ha-1 annualy and carbon sequestration has a 6 806 $ ha-1 annual value. After this regulatory parameters, as a socio-economic parameter tourism and recreation provides 4 362 $ ha-1 economic value annualyand supplier resource parameters following them. The paper shows the degree of importance of the UNP main values for the country and region as a whole. It also discusses some reasons of concern when drawing policy tools for improving UNP income and conservation practices local and regional level.