Assessment and improvement strategies of sustainable land management (SLM) planning initiative in Turkey.

Holistic planning and management of landscape is a prominent challenge. This paper provides a methodological framework for the assessment of an integrated land management plan with its action plans. Based on the scientific understanding, contemporary literature and the legal documents, a set of planning principles was developed and the strengths and weaknesses of the plan highlighted. Besides some shortcomings, the assessment indicated that the plan is a good initiative for a Sustainable Land Management (SLM) paradigm. The plan was based on a forest management plan from which the other action plans such as apiculture plan, grazing plan, biodiversity plan, non-wood products (NWFP) plan and income generating plan orbit around. A new inventory procedure was developed to determine growing stock in degraded forests. The climate change effects on four land use categories were projected with a limited set of measurements. Carbon storage was calculated for all land uses by considering various carbon pools. A typical governance option was proposed where each state organization prepare and implement their own activities according to the rights and responsibilities defined in the legal documents. While spatial database with thematic maps and attributes was built with GIS and remote sensing, the essential thematic maps such as land capability classes, non-systematic and traditional knowledge were absent. The lack of holistic planning vision, scenario analysis with sound decision making tools and methods, and insufficient participation, implementation and monitoring process were identified as major drawbacks. These shortcomings have created a significant design and governance concern and jeopardized by far the sustainable implementation of SLM activities. Consequently, a sound planning framework with its necessary components was developed as a basis for a comprehensive SLM and the appropriate revisions were proposed to improve each component of the plan.