Article The Role of Traditional Livelihood Practices and Local Ethnobotanical Knowledge in Mitigating Chestnut Disease and Pest Severity in Turkey Jeffrey Wall 1,* , Co¸skunKöse 2,*, Nesibe Köse 3, Taner Okan 4 , Elif Ba¸sakAksoy 5, Devra Jarvis 6,7 and Shorna Allred 1 1 Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA 2 Department of Forest Biology and Wood Protection Technology, Faculty of Forestry, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, 34473 Bahçeköy-Istanbul, Turkey 3 Department of Forest Botany, Faculty of Forestry, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, 34473 Bahçeköy-Istanbul, Turkey 4 Department of Forestry Economics, Faculty of Forestry, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, 34473 Bahçeköy-Istanbul, Turkey 5 Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Letters, Hacettepe University, 06800 Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey 6 Bioversity International, Via dei Tre Denari 472/a, Maccarese, 00057 Rome, Italy 7 Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected] (J.W);
[email protected] (C.K.); Tel.: +1-607-252-6579 (J.W.); +90-212-338-2400 (C.K.) Received: 30 May 2019; Accepted: 9 July 2019; Published: 10 July 2019 Abstract: The European chestnut population is enduring multiple compounding exotic pest and disease outbreaks across Turkey. The deeply held value of the chestnut species for the Turkish public is reflected in substantial government conservation programming. Chestnut is predominantly found on state land managed by Turkey’s General Directorate of Forestry (GDF), which generally upholds restrictive policies for chestnut-related livelihood practices other than nut collection and beehive placement. Such policies are justified by a government position that human activities and presence is likely to worsen disease dynamics.