Türkiye houses more than 3,700 endemic species

ANKARA

Türkiye’s climatic and geographical characteristics allow it to house more than 3,700 endemic species, with plants making up the most, followed by animals.

Biological diversity offers countries opportunities for genetic resources, according to data from the country’s biodiversity database UBENIS, made by the General Directorate of Natura Conservation and National Parks of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Türkiye’s strategic and geographic location allows various ecological conditions to coincide. The biodiverse species inhabiting Türkiye’s mountain, steppe, wetland, coastal and marine ecosystems enable the possibility of different gene and origin centers to survive

Various projects have been conducted to track biodiversity in the country. The results showed there are 12,500 open-and-closed-seeded plant species in Europe -- 11,700 of which were identified in Anatolia.

The UBENIS database project studies Türkiye’s biodiversity inventory, vascular plants, mammals, birds, inland fish species, reptiles and amphibians.

UBENIS data reaches over 1 million

Province-based biodiversity inventories were first launched in 2013 as a part of the UBENIS project, and all 81 provinces of Türkiye were surveyed by the end of 2019.

The number of entries, with the addition of flora, fauna, habitat and special area data gathered via UBENIS, reached more than 1.9 million.

Of the more than 852,600 entries, 472,000 were made up of animals, while 380,600 were of plants.

117 species categorized as very endangered

There are more than 3,700 endemic species across Türkiye, 428 of which are local and over 3,200 regionals.

Of the total number, vascular plants make up over 3,400, inland fish 163, reptiles 19, amphibians 15 and mammals make up nine.

There are 117 species categorized as “very endangered,” 152 “endangered,” and 145 were “vulnerable,” according to data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Factors threatening plant and animal species were identified, with human activities coming first, followed by unconscious agricultural practices, climate change, construction, pollution, mining, collection from nature, natural system changes, transportation, cultural and social threats, invasive species and geological events.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim in Istanbul