Rangeland types and traditional management practices in Turkey

Turkey has 21.8 million ha of natural rangelands, but their distribution varies greatly among the regions. From the perspective of ecological structure, seven grazing or browsing land types may be identified in Turkey. The Eastern and Central Anatolia have the most extensive grasslands, while the Mediterranean region has the largest woody rangelands. Rangelands are officially classified in accordance with the Dyksterhuis’s method (climax vegetation), but studies have been initiated to replace this method with the range health method. Turks have a distinguished range management tradition and range management practices. The system of transhumance, involving seasonally movement from the winter range (kışlak) to the summer range (yaylak), is a common practice in the traditional range management.