Lessons from Turkey Integrated Approaches to Land and Water Management

Global Perspectives on Watershed Management  First generation (1970s and 80s): top down, engineered solutions, little consultation  Second generation (1990s): community participation, local involvement, working from menus of options …. What’s the next generation?

Experience in Turkey Eastern Anatolia Watershed Rehabilitation Project, now closed, was a classic second generation project which had significant positive impacts.

Poverty and Forests in Turkey

Second project (Anatolia Watershed Rehabilitation Project) was a second generation ‘plus’ project ….. What was the ‘plus’?

Significant differences from the previous project  1. Institutions: widened involvement of public sector institutions (MEF and MARA: TÜGEM,OGM, ORKÖY, KKGM, AGM, SPAs, and CYGM)

Significant differences from the previous project  2. Very strong focus on service delivery: to poor communities in upland catchments

Significant differences from the previous project  3. Linkages: between upstream and downstream interests  Upstream interests: jobs, income generation, access to resources (forests, pastures, irrigation) [High poverty rates]

Significant differences from the previous project  3. Linkages: between upstream and downstream interests  Downstream interests: livestock improvement, manure management, crop productivity [Lower poverty rates]

Adding to the menu of options  Capitalizing on local interests in animal health and hygiene  Introducing integrating manure management systems which return compost to crops/pastures  Reducing and controlling water pollution into the Black Sea  Reducing nitrate levels in groundwater

Manure management measures

Some lessons  Centrality of community institutions in decision making  Organizing multiple government institutions to focus on service delivery in poor communities (convening power of the Bank)  Impact of introducing marginal technical improvements for managing manure  Animal hygiene  Local hygiene  Nitrate pollution reduction  Access to composted manure

What about climate change?  Warming is already evident (3ºC over last 50 years in western Mediterranean)  Winter precipitation since 1950 has decreased by about 20 percent  Projected impacts on Turkey of global 2ºC temperature rise include:  changes in seasonal rainfall  more dry days per year  outcome will have impacts on agriculture

Changes in seasonal rainfall

Increase in the number of dry days

The challenges  Scaling up: 65 percent of total rural land is degraded. Current operation is a ‘micro- pilot,’ covering 28 microcatchments. As many as 2000 could use similar treatment  Poor understanding of impacts on hydrology – increasingly critical to have this understanding as climate change impacts are felt  Medium term challenge of mitigating climate change impacts