Nature protection and biodiversity - Why care? (Turkey)

Turkey’s genetic diversity becomes important with plant genetic resources in particular because Turkey is located at the intersection of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern gene centers. These two regions have a key role in the emergence of cereals and horticultural crops. In our country, there are 5 micro-gene centers in which more than 100 species display a wide variation and which are the origin or centre of a large number of important crop plants and other economically important plant species such as medical plants. These centers offer very important genetic resources for the future sustainability of many plant species cultivated across the world. In terms of animal genetic resources, it is agreed that many domestic animal races were originally bred in Anatolia as a result of its location and spread from here to other regions of the world.

Figure 1. Biogeographical zones of Turkey

Turkey, situated where two different gene and diversity centers overlap, is the gene and origin centre of the following cultivated plants among others: Triticum, Hordeum, Secale, Avena, Linum, Allium, Cicer, Lens, Pisum, Medicago and Vicia. In Turkey, wheat (Triticum and Aegilops) has 25 wild relatives, barley (Hordeum) 8, rye (Secale) 5 and oat (Avena) 8. Turkey is also rich in wild relatives of edible grain legumes and fodder crops. Our country has 4 varieties of lentil (Lens), 10 of chickpea (Cicer), 104 of trefoil (Trifolium) of which 11 are endemic, 34 of Lucerne (Medicago), 42 of sainfoin (Onobrychis), and 60 of vetch (Vicia) of which 6 are endemic Turkey is also the micro-gene centre of the species Amygdalus spp., Cucumis melo, C. sativus, Cucurbita moshata, C. pepo, Malus spp., Pistachio spp., Prunus spp., Pyrus spp. And Vitis vinifera (Tan, 1998). Turkey is the home of many decorative plants including the tulip and the snowdrop.

The richness of variety is also noticeable in fruit production. Of the fruit types estimated to number 138 in total, 80 are grown in Turkey. Among the fruit and nut varieties in Turkey, one may count apples, pears, quinces, cherries, sour cherries, apricots, peaches, figs,  omegranates, mulberries, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts and pistachios. Viniculture holds an important place in our country’s agriculture. Anatolia hosts the wild vine (Vitis silvestris), which is the gene centre of the grape vine (Vitis vinifera).

Turkey is an agricultural country where plants and animals have been raised since ancient times. Our Southeastern Anatolia region, also called Northern Mesopotamia, is considered one of the centers of cultivation where mankind first started sedentary agriculture. For this reason, it is considered that many local animal races were first bred here by past civilizations and spread to other regions of the world. Turkey has rich gene resources with 8 cattle, 18 sheep, 4 goat, 7 horse and 9 poultry races.

Turkey has important inland waters ecosystems in terms of biological diversity with its rivers covering an area of around 10,000 km2 (1.6% of the country’s total surface area) and lakes. In the country, there are 7 drainage basins including 26 river basins, and it is estimated that the groundwater volume is 94 billion km3. The annual rainfall is around 640mm, of which nearly one third flows into water reserves and contributes to the viability of wetlands. However, as far as annual water consumption per person has been considered, Turkey has no water abundance. Water for consumption is around 1.500 m³ per person per annum.