INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GLOBAL WARMING, vol.23, no.1, pp.11-29, 2021 (SCI-Expanded)
The aim of this study is to investigate forest manager's perception on climate change and their willingness to change forest structure and composition for adaptation in three selected study areas (Antalya, Istanbul and Trabzon) in Turkey. As method, a survey questionnaire was carried out on 279 respondents. As some results, respondents have indicated a very high awareness of climate change with about 88.3% of them who believe in it and identified real manifestations of climate change in their forest area respectively 92.9% in Antalya, 90.9% in Istanbul and 81.1% in Trabzon, with a strong statistical relationship (X-2 = 8.607, p = 0.01) between the region and the perception. As well 92% of respondents in Antalya reported to be more prepared for climate change risk management, than Istanbul (76.7%) and Trabzon (65%) with a significant difference (X-2 = 89.03, p < 0.01). Furthermore, 55.4% of the respondents reported a high willingness to modify their management practices for future adaptation with a significant difference between the respondents in Antalya (73.8%), Istanbul (37.8%) and Trabzon (54.5%).