Prediction of Non-Wood Forest Products Trade Using Artificial Neural Networks

Abstract

Wood and non-wood resources in the forests have occu pied a very important place in human’s life, since the advent of history. And toda y, developing technology along with increasing needs enhance the importance of the othe r functions of forests, in parallel with wood production. Both in the world and as well in T urkey, one of the featured functions of forests is the production of Non-Wood Forest Prod ucts (NWFP). Certain NWFPs are of high added value and are used in many such fields a s food, pharmaceutics, and as well in cosmetics. It is emphatically essential to reveal t he potential of these products by conducting studies. Vast contributions could be mad e to a country’s economy by increasing and utilizing these potentials. With thi s study, it is intended to reveal the existing as well as the future return within a peri od of six years to the Turkish economy of NWFPs through a utilization of the foreign trade an d production data of the gone years. Keywords: Artificial neural networks, Foreign trade, Non-wood forest products, Prediction, Turkey.