Status: Ongoing

Project Duration: Oct 2025- Sept 2026

 

Challenge

Hatay is Türkiye’s only region where the endangered mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella) and striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) coexist. These species face intense pressure from poaching, habitat degradation, and human–wildlife conflict. Misconceptions and negative attitudes toward wildlife exacerbate the risks, threatening fragile post-earthquake ecosystems.

Solution

This project will map and analyze conflict zones, monitor species ecology, and develop community-based strategies to reduce human–wildlife conflict. By combining field monitoring with community education and a major wildlife observation event, the initiative will strengthen protection for these rare species and foster coexistence between people and wildlife.

 Project Deliverables

• Deployment of camera traps and direct field observations to monitor population status and habitat use.

• Ecological data collection (feeding ecology, tracks, scat, prey remains) to understand species needs.

• Conflict mapping through local interviews with shepherds, hunters, and villagers.

• Risk-reduction strategies co-developed with experts and shared with local institutions.

• Wildlife Observation Day in Hatay with broad public participation.

• Nature education programs in rural schools reaching at least 150 children.

 

About the organisation: Hatay Environmental Protection Association works to protect and ensure the sustainable use of Türkiye’s natural resources — including steppe and mountain ecosystems, forests, agricultural lands, soil and water resources, grasslands, seas, lakes, rivers, wetlands, and caves — while preventing all forms of environmental pollution that threaten living environments.