Abstract Forest fires cause loss of lives besides financial damages affecting approximately 350 million hectares of area every year in the World. YARDOP (Forest Fire Resistant) forests were developed in order to prevent these fire damages. In this study, testing areas from the fire resistant plants in the region of Kepsut/Balıkesir (Turkey) to reduce forest fires were created. Great attention was paid on the used plants to have medical and economical values. Both the ethnobotanical and fire resistency features of the 21 taxa belonging to 11 families and used in experimental areas were identified.
Keywords Forest fires, ethnobotany, fire-resistant, YARDOP, Turkey.