Türkiye
Doğa Derneği
Doğa Derneği’s work is driven by the demand to take action to defend nature. Our mission is to defend the rights of nature in all its forms and including all its processes, which are necessary for the creation and sustenance of life.
Key Activities
- Species and habitat monitoring and protection programs for species from various taxa such as imperial eagle, yelkouan shearwater, great bustard, Egyptian vulture, bald ibis, anatolian mountain crain, sociable lapwing, semi-collared flycatcher, cinereous bunting, bear, striped hyena, goitered gazelle, anatolian leopard, Erzincan milkwort, Euphrates softshell turtle and freshwater fish of Turkey.
- Implementation of site conservation strategies at 30 KBAs (Key Biodiversity Areas) out of 305 KBAs of Turkey in close cooperation with neighboring countries with transboundary conservation projects.
- Implementation of national and international campaigns such as the campaign to save the historical town of Hasankeyf – which meets nine out of 10 UNESCO criteria for World Heritage List – and the surrounding Tigris Valley – which is a KBA – from being flooded by the planned Ilısu Dam.
- Wetland protection and conservation programs in threatened wetlands such as Burdur Lake and Gediz Delta – which are KBAs and Ramsar Sites – that involve eradication of threats and introduction of wetland-friendly production practices both to save these wetlands and to act as a model of intervention for other threatened wetlands.
- Establishment of “Nature School” to serve as a nature conservation center for Turkey and the Mediterranean with courses such as applied conservation methods, river basins, landscape and protected area management, species conservation, pastoral ecosystems as well as human ecology.