Bird sites in Turkey requiring 
research during 1993 
Murat Yarar and Gernant Magnin 
In 1986, the then ICBP (International Council for Bird Preservation) 
initiated an ambitious project to list all the sites in Europe that are 
important for birds. To identify and describe the Turkish Important Bird 
Areas (IB As), ICBP secured special funding and commissioned Max and 
Aygiin Kasparek and Asaf Ertan (DHKD) to do the desktop and field 
studies and to write the inventory. 
Much of the information which was used to compile the first IBA 
inventory came from foreign birdwatchers. After a lot of fieldwork in 
1986 and 1987, the three authors accurately listed and described 79 IB As. 
The inventory was published in Turkish and English, in 1989. 
The inventory was the first of its kind and was therefore of great 
importance to decision makers and planners in Turkey. Even today, it is 
still the only site-reference work in Turkey and is so important that 
DHKD has reprinted the Turkish edition three times, twice with funding 
from the Turkish Ministry for Environment. 
Since 1989, DHKD and ICBP have carried out an IBA project from the 
DHKD headquarters in Istanbul. Two full-time officers work for the 
project to identify the most important and threatened sites and work for 
their conservation. 
As a result of large-scale bird surveys by, among others, WIWO, SO VON 
and OSME, and field surveys by the project itself and the increasing 
number of visiting birdwatchers, knowledge of Turkey's birds and bird 
sites have increased enormously. To date, 15 new IBAs have been 
identified. An updated IBA inventory is now planned for publication in 
1994, but more information is needed for many sites. 
If you wish to help the IBA project by visiting one or more of these sites 
please contact Murat Yarar, IBA project Officer, PK 18, 80810 Bebek- 
Istanbul, Turkey; fax (90 1) 279 55 44. DHKD especially wants to hear 
from drivers prepared to survey a number of these sites during the 
period April-June. There may be limited financial support from 
international organisations for such surveys. For 1993, DHKD will 
support two teams with 100 GBP each to spend at least two weeks 
surveying one or more of the sites mentioned below. 
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