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Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are areas contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. One of the greatest threats to freshwater species is, therefore, the loss or degradation of habitats and Turkey is no exception. Recent findings show that Turkey has lost wetlands covering a surface area one and a half times the Sea of Marmara within the last sixty years.
Freshwater KBAs (FWKBAs) are yet to be identified for most parts of the world leaving few current opportunities for conservation and development managers to take account of freshwater biodiversity within the planning process to mitigate the loss of freshwater habitats and extinction of freshwater species. In Turkey, 38 FWKBAs were identified using globally defined criteria, which are triggered by 84 freshwater fish and 33 mollusk (snail and mussel) species.
Lake Beyşehir, the second largest lake in Turkey, is forming Lake Beyşehir and Catchments FWKBA with its large catchment. The FWKBA is home to 12 threatened freshwater fish species and one is already extinct.
Conservationists believe that the fate of remaining 12 species would be the same to become extinct if no action is taken. Foremost threats towards the species are a decline in water and habitat quality, habitat destruction, unwise water management, predation by introduced alien species such as Zander. If With the generous financial support of Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP), Doga Association (BirdLife in Turkey) in collaboration with Magma Magazine, a geography magazine, acted for community-based conservation of globally threatened fish species and their habitats.