Biodiversity and Protected Areas in Turkey

Turkey has three major bio-geographical regions namely Euro-Siberian, Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian. There are very different types of ecosystems such as agricultural, mountain, forests, steppes and wetlands, as well as coastal and marine. The country has rich floral and faunal diversity, high endemism and wide genetic diversity. A good progress has been made in protecting nature and biodiversity rich areas. Since 1990, the extent of protected areas has almost doubled to reach 7.2% of the territory. There are 40 national parks, 31 nature conservation areas, 107 natural monuments, 184 nature parks, 81 wildlife reserve areas, 58 conservation forests, 239 genetic conservation areas, 373 seed stands, 15 specially protected areas, 1273 natural sites, 14 Ramsar sites and 1 biosphere reserve. In this paper information on different ecosystems of the country is presented.