April 2003
News our activities
We would like to give you, dear members and friends,
as always, information about
activities in our society. Earlier this happened with the little newspaper Iste
akyaka". Unfortunately for legal reasons we have to present our news
now in the more simple form of a "members letter".
Concerning the Biyo-akyaka project:
- After the deplorable fire event in our office, after interim reports and
the approval of the UNDP co-ordinators, we began again working with the
project. Our regional team, -consisting of two community representatives and
two village representatives of the included project area- met again and
searched for new possibilities of collaboration.
- A preliminary talk with exchange of ideas was held. Generally the
alternative tourism possibilities available in the region should be animated
whereby in the future all connected communities and villages will collaborate
in the frame of their possibilities with a precise co-ordination. With these
plans and with the management of the environment we want to come to a better
form of the protection of the biological diversity in our region. Through
these measures, we expect also new possibilities for the communities and
villages lying outside of Akyaka through alternative tourism.
- From 12th - 13 of April we went to Ankara to meet with other project
leaders of GEF- projects. During the two-day meeting, we found based on the
lively discussions with the other NGO’s new possibilities of collaboration for
our project region. Our project was introduced with a presentation about
communication difficulties and its overcoming in multi stakeholder projects.
Culture and art:
- We renovated parts of the Nail Cakirhan - Halet Çambel culture and art
house and our office.
- The floors of the showroom and the office, all doors and the stairways
were ready made for new exhibitions.
- - The Nail Cakirhan street passing by our building got a new paving by our
community administration. We thank the mayor and all the ones that work for
the community, to provide a nice new and clean street for the openings of the
exhibitions.
- - The exhibition program for 2003 is finished, you find it attached. In
addition we held two meetings with our artists in the Idyma restaurant and
discussed their proposals.
Environment and nature protection:
- - on 2nd February, we showed at the occasion of the "World Wetland Day"
documentary about birds in the Yücelen hotel. The interest was pleasingly
great, Ahmet Eryigit of the SPA agency as well as Heike THOL-SCHMITZ showed
presentations about the importance of the biological diversity in respect to
the wetlands of our region.
- -We take part as advisors in two nature protection projects in Fethiye and
Bodrum as well as the regular bird observations. The developments are
pleasing.
- In context with the "biological and natural sources management project "by
the environmental ministry our society was invited as a representative of the
southern Aegean to Ankara. With pride, because we were one of only 16 invited
NGO’s all over Turkey.
- - Our weekly monitoring in the wetlands of Akyaka was continued. –
- The new atlas project has as a goal to produce a national map for the
breeding places of the birds of Turkey. We took part in training and
participated in first steps concerning this national project. - #
- The Akcapinar "stork village project", included in our running UNDP GEF /
SGP project started successfully. In order to attract the attention of the
people in our region, we arranged for this purpose on Sunday, the 20 April
2003 a stork-observation-walk in Akcapinar at 11.00 a.m. Let us not forget -,
most guests from Europe coming out here do not know storks but only from
documentaries..
Further activities of the society:
- the printed material destroyed in the office fire was delivered again to
be reprinted.
- Unfortunately we lost again, like every year, some of our members. We had
to delete some memberships, because the yearly fees were not paid for more
than two years.
- We won some new members however again in addition, so that we can count at
present 128 ordinary and 58 honourable members (01.05.2003). –
- Our Web site (www.akyaka.org) is updated periodically and became gradually
an extensive source of information. We are striving to answer the questions
and proposals that reach us from Turkey and many other parts of the world. On
the website produced and updated by our webmaster Thomas SCHMITZ, you can
find, amongst other, information about daily events and all about our
activities.
Thanks, that you are at our side and support us.
With many greeting from Akyaka
For the Society of the Friends of akyaka Akyaka
Thomas Schmitz
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