Integrated Approaches to Land and
Water Management
Lessons from Turkey
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 ‘micropilot,’ 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