Returning to Turkish forestry, we find a mostly centralized, bureaucratic structure, as implied in the table of organization described above. However, in strict organizational terms, the main reason for relying on centralized over local management control is probably the sheer number of knowledgeable and experienced decision makers available within the central government (Can and Tecer, 1978; Ozdonmez et al., 1998; Can, 2002). In contrast, the insufficiency of qualified decision makers at the local level, combined with the scant availability of highly skilled personnel, makes the central management style preferable and, overall, much more efficient in the process of making decisions and directing organizational activities (Ozdonmez et al., 1998). This is not to say that stakeholders at the local level do not have purposeful and knowledgeable input, only that they do not, as yet, possess the requisite implementation skills. To illustrate this, the most important reason why FMPs in Turkey are not effectively implemented by FE administrators is because local managers are not equipped, either in terms of personnel or management expertise, to handle the large forested areas under their control. The average forest land under the management of FEs is 15 874 ha, which is an unmanageable size given the overall skills of FE staff, as they go about implementing the FMP. Therefore, it cannot be said that the planning stage of FMPs, which is left in the hands of FMCs, as indicated above, completely serves the needs of people at the local level. For that reason, efforts to include local participation in the planning of FMPs are continuously underway so that the expectations and preferences of those at the local level will be honored within the framework of FMPs.