Investigation of Societal Awareness of Non-Wood Forest Products: A Case Study of Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye

The rich biological diversity in the forests of Turkey provides the opportunity to include rich non-wood forest product resources in the forests spread in different regions of the country. In recent years, there has been an increase in demand for non-wood forest product resources due to awareness. This resource is recognized as an important source of income and employment for local and national economies. It is stated that non-wood forest products contribute to the increase in demand for natural products and safe food worldwide. When the studies are examined, it is seen that there has been an increase in the number of scientific studies on non-wood forest products in recent years, but studies to determine the level of awareness of the society towards non-wood forest products are very limited. In this study, it was aimed to determine the level of awareness of the society on non-wood forest products in Kahramanmaraş province. For this purpose, the data of the study were collected by face-to-face survey method with 480 participants randomly selected from various segments of the society at different times of the day in the city center. The data obtained were statistically analyzed using SPSS program. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that 20.6% of the participants had low, 77.5% had medium and 1.9% had high level of awareness about non-wood forest products.