European Ecological Congress (Eureco’05)

Hepcan, Ç.C., S. Hepcan, A. Kaplan, & B. Özkan,, 2005, European Ecological Congress (Eureco’05), Proceedings s. 187-196, November 08-13, 2005, Kuşadası-İzmir.

  • Author : Hepcan, Ç.C., S. Hepcan, A. Kaplan, & B. Özkan,
  • Year : 2005
  • Title English : European Ecological Congress (Eureco’05)
  • Publisher : Proceedings s. 187-196, November 08-13, 2005, Kuşadası-İzmir.
  • Abstract in English : The fragmentation of landscapes and habitats, which generally results in a reduction or total loss of biodiversity, is one of the major challenges in nature protection in recent years. This impact is particularly more noticeable over ecologically vulnerable and /or endangered habitats and species, which warrant special conservation attention because they are functionally valuable for the long term sustainability of related ecosystems in most cases. In this context establishing of ecological networks with their traditional components such as core areas and corridors is one of the recent measures to fragmentation and isolation of natural landscapes and habitats. Thus it has been considered as a suitable approach in order to protect biodiversity regardless of the opportunities for other compatible human demands. At this point establishing ecological / habitat networks in Turkey, which demonstrates exceptional floral and faunal diversity compared to other European countries, deserves special interest owing to impacts driven by the land use changes in last decades. In this paper while importance and basic principles of establishing ecological networks are evaluated and discussed, some contributions in terms of planning and implementation aspects are made towards developing a new nature conservation strategy in Turkey, in which the principle of spatially and functionally integrated network of ecologically valuable areas are prioritized.