Köycegiz - Dalyan Special Environmental Protection Area (SEPA) in Turkey covers about 12 km along the coast. Köyceğiz- Dalyan SEPA is a unique coastal ecosystem connecting the open sea with freshwater lakes, estuaries, lagoons and wetlands; as well as agricultural farming land and forests. The tight connections between all these adjacent ecosystems require an overall coastal management.

The sand spit that serves as the divider between the sea and the estuary and wetland system is also one of the top nesting beaches for an endangered species, the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). Protection of this species and its nesting sites is of international concern and has been a major activity under the Mediterranean Action Plan since the early 1980s.

Tourism, fisheries and agriculture are the major economic activities in the SEPA. A real process for a governance system that will ensure integration of coastal management is not yet implemented. The Pegaso work in Köycegiz - Dalyan CASE will be to implement two important tools for integrated coastal management: public participation and local community awareness, and the use of indicators for monitoring the state of coastal environment and resources and the coastal management process.

Up to now, meetings with the main stakeholders took place although with weak participation from the governmental representatives and the fishery and boat transport sectors. In the light of the main stakeholders evaluation, collection of data and information has been carried out on GIS Applications (spatial changes, urban sprawling), motor boat traffic, fisheries production and water quality.

The way forward in the coming months will be dealing with climate changes impacts, nature conservation and marine turtles, working on coastal indicators of local nature following the framework of general Pegaso indicators, and enhancing and measuring public participation.

The case supervisor is Erdal Özhan, Mediterranean Coastal Foundation.