Species
Grey wolf
Discover how Fauna & Flora and our partners are helping to ensure harmony between humans and the world's largest canid.
In 2012, Fauna & Flora joined forces with a newly formed Turkish NGO, Akdeniz Koruma Derneği (AKD), to tackle the growing threats to marine life and coastal livelihoods posed by overfishing, destructive fishing, coastal development and pollution. This is the story of how that collaboration unfolded, and the impact our partnership has achieved for nature.
Key successes
Notable increase in fish biomass in highly protected areas
Mediterranean monk seal with octopus catch. © Zafer Kizilkaya
Seal recovery
Increased sightings and higher numbers of endangered Mediterranean monk seals in Gökova Bay.
Sandbar sharks recorded more frequently
Mediterranean monk seal with octopus catch. © Zafer Kizilkaya
Seal recovery
Increased sightings and higher numbers of endangered Mediterranean monk seals in Gökova Bay.
Climate change is causing an influx of invasive lionfish from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean. © Zafer Kizilkaya
Lionfish on the menu
New market created for invasive fish, generating additional income for local fishers, with 12 tonnes of lionfish already bought.
Türkiye’s marine protected area network expanded
AKD divers gather sediment cores in a seagrass bed in order to enable analysis of their carbon sequestration value. © Zafer Kizilkaya
Seagrass surveyed
Important seagrass beds located and mapped, with ongoing monitoring at key sites.
Climate change is causing an influx of invasive lionfish from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean. © Zafer Kizilkaya
Lionfish on the menu
New market created for invasive fish, generating additional income for local fishers, with 12 tonnes of lionfish already bought.
AKD divers gather sediment cores in a seagrass bed in order to enable analysis of their carbon sequestration value. © Zafer Kizilkaya
Seagrass surveyed
Important seagrass beds located and mapped, with ongoing monitoring at key sites.
Crisis in the Med
The Mediterranean is the most overfished sea on the planet. For millennia, coastal communities lived in relative harmony with nature, with small-scale fishers taking only what they needed from the sea. But for the past few decades, commercial-scale fishing fleets using destructive fishing practices have been gobbling up marine resources at an unsustainable rate, wrecking community livelihoods. In effect, waging war on nature.
Türkiye’s Turquoise Coast is one of the most stunning seascapes in the Mediterranean and harbours many threatened species including monk seals, loggerhead turtles, sandbar and angel sharks, and carbon-storing seagrass meadows that play a vital role in combating global heating. In 2012, Fauna & Flora began working with AKD in Türkiye’s Gökova Bay, a marine wildlife haven that was in urgent need of more effective protection from illegal fishing activities.
Better protection needed
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are areas of the ocean officially set aside and managed in order to safeguard marine species and habitats and allow them to recover from the damage caused by human activities. If strongly enforced, they are an effective way to save biodiversity and allow depleted fish populations to rebound. However, many existing MPAs are poorly protected in practice, meaning that destructive fishing and other damaging activities continue, and only a tiny fraction of the Mediterranean is fully protected in any case. Fauna & Flora and AKD set out to demonstrate to local fishers that well-managed MPAs could improve their livelihoods, and to persuade government decision-makers to create more of them in order to meet the country’s 30×30 targets.
Marine survey in Gökova Bay, Türkiye. © Zafer Kizilkaya
Marine biologist surveying invertebrates on a transect in a marine protected area, Gökova Bay, Türkiye.
It’s time to change our attitude to the ocean and view it not just as a source of food, but as an indispensable life-support system. The ocean is our best friend. It makes this planet unique and liveable. We need to do everything we can to help our best friend now.
Zafer Kizilkaya
President, Akdeniz Koruma Derneği (Mediterranean Conservation Society) and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize 2023
It’s time to change our attitude to the ocean and view it not just as a source of food, but as an indispensable life-support system. The ocean is our best friend. It makes this planet unique and liveable. We need to do everything we can to help our best friend now.
Zafer Kizilkaya
President, Akdeniz Koruma Derneği (Mediterranean Conservation Society) and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize 2023
Community-led action for nature
Coastal communities are at the heart of our work in Türkiye. AKD draws on the deep knowledge of local fishers. They fed into the design of the protected areas, and some are employed as marine rangers to ensure they are part of the enforcement effort. With support from the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme, AKD works with local fishers to promote sustainable fishing practices, reduce destructive and illegal activities in the no-fishing zones and ensure that people operating legally can benefit from their marine resources.
AKD coordinates patrols, closely monitors species such as the endangered Mediterranean monk seal, conducts research to assess the health of key habitats such as seagrass, and removes threats to nature such as ghost nets and other forms of marine pollution. It is the coastal communities themselves who are driving all these activities.
With AKD’s support, local fishing cooperatives have systematically recorded what they are catching and what impact the strict no-take zones have had on fish biomass. Enabling the marine ecosystem to recover not only helps to improve the livelihoods of small-scale fishers, but also increases the availability of food for marine predators such a sharks, seals and groupers.
Ayşenur Ölmez (left) and Atıf Ölmez of AKD preparing to release the critically endangered angel shark, Gökova Bay, Türkiye. © AKD
Ayşenur Ölmez (left) and Atıf Ölmez of AKD preparing to release a critically endangered angel shark, rescued from a net, Gökova Bay, Türkiye.
From threat to opportunity
As climate change warms the ocean, increasing numbers of non-native fish are invading the Mediterranean. Invasive lionfish, rabbitfish and squirrelfish prey on native species, overgraze vegetation and dramatically alter underwater habitats. AKD’s solution has been to promote the consumption of the invasive lionfish as ‘new fish’, and to support women’s groups in turning lionfish spines into fashion accessories, with the aim of generating alternative sources of income for fishers and their families.
Jewellery made from invasive lionfish spines and fins. © Vankey
Jewellery made from invasive lionfish spines and fins.
Joint journey
Working together for over a decade, Fauna & Flora and AKD have changed the design and delivery of marine conservation in Türkiye. We have demonstrated how effective a well-managed marine protected area with restricted fishing zones can be at delivering benefits for threatened species and small-scale fishers. We collaborated to create and deliver a successful ranger training and development programme, leading to improved law enforcement. Fauna & Flora has accompanied AKD through a period of organisational growth, during which it has expanded its focus to include policy influence, behaviour change and marine restoration. Our tailored support for AKD has helped ensure significant positive impact for conservation.
Fauna & Flora's Technical Specialist, Harriet Branson, leading GIS training for AKD staff in Türkiye, with Çağdaş Yaşar, Gökova Area Manager, and Tunca Olguner (Project Monitoring Assistant). © Kieran Murray / Fauna & Flora
GIS training for AKD staff in Türkiye led by Fauna & Flora's Technical Specialist, Harriet Branson.
Blueprint for success
This conservation model is now being replicated more widely, with an expanding network of MPAs covering approximately 700 km of the Turkish coastline, including designation and active protection of full no-fishing zones. Türkiye is now firmly established as a leader in marine conservation in the Mediterranean.
Turkey coastline and islands. © Akdeniz Koruma Derneği
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