The SGP Turkey Country Programme has recently, released “Sharing the Seeds of Knowledge”, a short film produced by the SGP Country Programme with COMDEKS funding that documents the landscape approach piloted by COMDEKS, and describes supported activities in the Datça-Bozburun peninsula to enhance the resilience of the landscape. Through this documentary, representatives from local organizations and local communities reflect on the impacts of on the ground activities on sustainable development and demonstrate the interconnectedness between each supported project at a landscape level. This documentary is a helpful tool to disseminate lessons learned for more effective project replication in similar socio-ecological production landscapes.
COMDEKS projects in Turkey are designed to simultaneously improve the livelihoods of local populations while strengthening the resilience of surrounding ecosystems of the target landscape. Supported projects aim to protect biodiversity and improve ecosystem services combatting overfishing, the lack of regulatory enforcement and illegal harvesting within “no-fishing” zones. Supported projects are also working towards developing resilient agricultural systems, as agriculture is still vital for the socio-economic health of the landscape environment. These projects aim to improve livelihoods as they target sustainable economic growth, by conserving, producing and marketing, medicinal and aromatic plants and local organic almonds, among other products. The documentary also describes the challenges of fisherwomen of the Datça-Bozburun Peninsula. Supported COMDEKS activities aims to improve fisherwomen’s livelihood in the target landscape, where traditional family fishing is still prevalent. COMDEKS projects in Datça-Bozburun also focus on the development of effective conservation plans (i.e. forest management plan or species conservation action plans) and on promoting effective institutions and sustainable governance at the landscape level.
The English subtitled version of the video is available at the following link: http://vimeo.com/92213654.
The documentary was produced in partnership with the Datça Local History Association, and ADC Production.
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