The workshop aims to bring the interested parties together to focus on the newly emerging problems of the foresters due to two new laws that have recently been accepted by the parliament (Turkish Grand National Assembly).

The forest villagers in Turkey are among the lowest wage group. Most of them are organised in the form of cooperatives, which are barely surviving. The two new laws will eliminate the priority given to the local forest villagers for works to be done in or around the forests, as well as changing the definition of the work, resulting in a competitive forestry market. Due to the relatively small nature of the cooperatives, they, most likely, will not be able to cope with this.

The Grantee identified this as a potential risk both to the welfare of the people that are depending on forest most, and to the sustainable resource management within forests, as foresters are well aware of the importance of the resource while other people/contractors may not. Thus, the project aims to organise a workshop bringing together Cooperative Members from all over the country, Members of the Parliament, academic representatives, other interest groups and the media.