Forest crimes have various attributes with sociological and economic reasons. Among such crimes are illegal tree felling and harvesting from forests; illegal tree cutting without permission on lands registered at the Land Registry; having illegal forest assets; occupation and clearing; grazing and hunting; making charcoal out of timber; building and operating facilities with no permission; deliberate forest fires; damaging forest landmarks; and deteriorating the environment, biodiversity and genetic resources. It was identified that 2 386 forest clearings and settlements occured in 2007 in Turkey and 988 hectare of forest area were damaged. Forest villagers, who constitute the poorest part of the country's population are a major cause of the clearing. They create a demand for new settlement areas and agricultural practices in order to make a living from the forests. When illegal forest cuttings in recent decade are analysed it is understood that the average number of forest crimes is 9 828, with 38 856 cubic meters of industrial timber and 15 854 cubic meters of fuelwood being removed from the forests. According to the results of the study it is understood that infrastructural and superstructural problems of rural people need to be solved to decrease the number of forest crimes and to protect forest genetic resources and floristic and faunistic ecosystem integrity. The number of forest villagers is about 8 million in Turkey and the problems accociated with rural poverty are the main reasons for forest crimes. In this study the sociological, demographic, economic and cultural structure of forest villagers and their agricultural production patterns were also anaysed. In this regard some suggestions related to efficient use of resources were made under the rural development framework to increase the quality of life and welfare of the villagers who live within and in the neighbourhood of forestlands. Statistical analysis was also applied to achieve this goal. Objectives of this analysis are: to maintain social and cultural development of people in rural areas, to solve their nutrition and health problems, to improve their infrastructural resources, and to increase the agricultural efficiency by introducing new production techniques. As a result in this study the relationship between forest crimes and rural development which causes damage to the forest and forest genetic resources was presented from the perspectives of forest policy, forest protection and sustainable rural development. Key word: Forest Crimes, Forest Protection, Rural Development, Sustainability, Forest Genetic Resources

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