Timber smuggling and forestry politics in late nineteenth-century Western Taurus

Abstract

The nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire witnessed a gradual change in the forestry regime. In response to the intensifying struggle over forest resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Ottoman government introduced a series of reforms aimed at exerting more direct control over forests. In the implementation of these reforms not only did opposing interests clash at the central level but local interest groups involved in regional trade networks also appeared as influential actors. Focusing on a lawsuit related to forest crimes committed in the Teke region in the beginning of the 1890s, this paper discusses how modern, bureaucratized forestry practices were negotiated at the local level. By uncovering a complicated interaction among forest officials at the center and in the provinces, as well as timber merchants, this paper considers smuggling an integral component of politics over natural resources.