Datça is a Key Biodiversity Area for 7 different taxon groups including plants, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies and dragonflies. Peninsula hosts globally endangered marine animals such as Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) and loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). The terrestrial regions are also rich with endangered northern luschman?s salamander (Lyciasalamandra flavimembris) and large mammals such as Caracal (Caracal caracal) and mountain goat (Capra aegagrus). Moreover, the largest Datça phoenix group ever recorded is found on the peninsula.

The local communities of the peninsula earn their living on fishery, tourism and agriculture. Since the areas suitable for agriculture is scarce in the region, the forest habitats had been converted in to agricultural lands through the ages. The main agricultural products are almond and olives. Wild herbs are also a commodity that?s harvested for local market and bee keeping is locally practiced at some parts of the peninsula.

For the preparation of COMDEK Landscape Baseline Assessment of Datça Peninsula, it?s crucial to organize a workshop to gather information on the status of the landscape as perceived by individuals and organizations living and working there, based on the set of indicators for resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes developed. Therefore the project team will identify the relevant stakeholders during a field trip and inform them about the exercise. The team will contact and gather respected leaders, organizational directors, farmers and knowledgeable individuals from two or more communities within the landscape in a single forum.

Before the workshop the team will design preparatory exercises and help prepare the workshop participants, including the preparation of necessary information to bring for the workshop discussions based on the template and guidelines provided. The team will translate the scorecard and the data capture tool into Turkish and to use them during the workshops and adapt the exercise according to the needs of the stakeholder groups. The project team will share and evaluate the outputs with SGP National Coordinator before the workshop.

After the preparations the team will organize a workshop and facilitate it, in consultation with SGP National Coordinator. This workshop will engage the participants in a participatory analytical way. The project results from groups will be communicated among all of them. Selected representatives from each group will explore reasons for different results, and implications for developing landscape management strategies. The baseline scoring exercise will assist stakeholders in the target area to design landscape strategies defined and agreed upon in a participatory manner, with the overall long-term objective to enhance socio-ecological production landscape resilience.

Based on the findings of the workshop the project team will develop a 15-page COMDEKS Country Programme Development Strategy (following template and guidelines provided by the COMDEKS Project Coordinator) and a 5-page summary of lessons learned from the consultation process and use of indicators for resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes.