The Government of Turkey is carrying out significant efforts to manage its water resources sustainably in line with the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). In this context, Turkey uses hydrological basins as the basis for the management of natural resources.

 The overall objective of the project is to promote Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) and mainstream Biodiversity Conservation in the Gediz River Basin with a focus on the sustainable management of land and water resources.

 GEF resources is used to strengthen the enabling environment and showcase strategic practices to induce a change in the way natural resources are currently managed in the GRB. By ensuring local stakeholders as part of the decision-making processes, the project will develop a model that ensures GEF-financed interventions are accepted by project beneficiaries. As project interventions show the benefits of improved management, best practices will be disseminated to ensure the proposed models are upscaled not only to the GRB but to other basins in Turkey, leading to improvements in the status of natural resources in the country.

 Expected project outputs include:

Enabling environment to support the implementation of best practices in river basin management and biodiversity conservation aligned with the existent Gediz River Basin Management Plan (RBMP).

SLM practices upscaled and promoted to avoid and reduce land degradation and to restore ecosystem services and biodiversity in the river basin.

Project implementation based on RBMP and lessons learned/good practices documented and disseminated.