A methodological approach for designating management zones in Mount Spil National Park, Turkey

WOS: 000088713100007This study was undertaken to (1) determine the suitability of ecosystems within Mount Spil National Park (Turkey) to human activities by a systematic zoning procedure, and (2) provide the basis for developing sound management strategies based on natural-cultural resource attributes of the park. After assessing natural-cultural resources and human activity requirements, the suitability of three zones (Strict Protection Zone. SPZ; Restricted Use Zone. RUZ; and Recreation and Administration Zone, RAZ) for proposed human activities/land uses was determined in order to maintain ecological sustainability and integrity through a weighting-ranking methodology, based on a grid cell resolution of 1 km x 1 km. Results showed that out of the three management zones, the RUZ in which the recreational activities that do not require physical developments are allowed constituted 82% of the park area as the first priority management zone. The proposed zoning procedure is believed to be a key step to improve management for both the study area and other national parks with the similar landscape features

Corrigendum to "Ecological networks as a new approach for nature conservation in Turkey: A case study of Izmir Province" [Landsc. Urban Plan. 90 (3-4) (2009) 143-154] (DOI:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2008.10.023)

[No abstract available

Ecological networks as a new approach for nature conservation in Turkey: A case study of İzmir Province

This paper aims to identify and evaluate a potential ecological network including core areas and large-scale corridors in the İzmir Province and its surrounding areas, Turkey. It is one of the first studies on the connectivity for mammal species and the detection of potential ecological corridors for Turkey. Four wide-ranging species (Hyaena hyaena, Lynx lynx, Caracal caracal, and Felis chaus) have been chosen as target species. Existing Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and surrounding lands have been evaluated based on a three criteria: (1) vegetation/habitat types, (2) carrying capacity and (3) road density using simple GIS-based models. The results are evaluated using the Minimum Viable Metapopulation (MVMP) standards. No KBA in the study region has a Key Population (KP) or Minimum Viable Population (MVP) with the exception of Boz Daglar. Least cost-path analysis has been applied to identify linkages between KBAs relevant for the four target species. The conclusion is that it is possible to maintain MVPs in the region when the KBAs are linked by ecological corridors. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.We are thankful to TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey), which provided financial support for making researches in the field of ecological networks in the Netherlands. We also would like to express our gratitude to Paul Opdam, Paul Chardon, TheoVan Der Sluis from Alterra Green World Research Center Wageningen University – the Netherlands, and Güven Eken and Yıldıray Lise from Doğa Derneği–Turkey for their sincere co-operation and valuable knowledge given. Very special thanks are given to Ted Cook from Arizona State University–USA for his encouragement and guidance. Finally we also thank Selçuk Dinçal, Ph.D candidate at Texas A&M University – USA, Fatih Evrendilek from Abant Izzet Baysal University – Turkey and Bob Bunce from Alterra Green World Research Center Wageningen University – the Netherlands for their contributions to advance the manuscript. -