Bio-diversity

In 2012, in the marine environment of Dat a Peninsula, one of the coastal Special Environmental Protection Area in the country, three small scale Fisheries Restricted Marine Protected Areas had been formed. MPAs are used as a tool for Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management and serves as reserves for sustainable use. Also, MPAs generates concrete results to overfishing problem and sustainable existence of living resources. The most important threat to MPAs is illegal and overfishing activities within these areas. These activities reduce habitat quality and decrease biodiversity, finally destruct marine ecosystem and requires constant regulations both in the terrestrial and marine area. While, regulation process in the sea is harder because of effort-efficiency relation and physical and geographic conditions, regulation in the land is more practical and efficient. Proposed project aims to protect marine and coastal ecosystems and to make positive contribution to local fisheries and other sectors that are bound to fisheries through thought and attitude alteration in the framework of decreasing over and illegal fishing. Success of MPAs primarily related with local beneficiaries understanding and accepting importance and advantages of MPAs. The another aim of the project is to impose standards required to sustain wise use of an MPA to local people within a framework of internalized aouto control. In the project, communication methods which enhance the capacity of local stakeholders with educational studies appropriate to their perceptual capacity, educate and entertain children, strengthen the relationship between nature and human with awarded systems will be used. Within the categories as responsible recreational fisheries and responsible local fisheries, value, role and responsibility will be given to the triad hunter, dealer and consumer. Experts in their field will implement the sets of educational seminars, creation and implementation of representative products, introduction of endangered species, education platforms, informative panels together with stakeholders. Value of Datca Peninsula, importance of concept MPA and information and processes of how these recourses should be used will be shared with first local, then regional and national public.

Turkey