Threatening factors on plant diversity of Kazdaği (Ida mountain) national park in Turkey and suggestions for conservation

Abstract

Kazdagi National Park is located in the Southern part of Marmara region in the North-west of Turkey. There are about 800 taxa naturally grown in the National Park and 79 of them are endemic to Turkey. Also, thirty one of the endemic taxa are grown only in the area. Additionally, there are thirty one "rare plants" in this area. Due to these characteristics, the area is an important plant area in Turkey and Europe as well. Therefore, the area was determined as "Important Plant Areas (IPAs)" by Planta Europa and WWF. This paper evaluates the environmental and anthropogenic impacts on the plant diversity in the National Park. Threatening factors on the endemic and rare species in the National Park have been determined. Also, conservation suggestions for endemic and rare plants were emphasized in this study. Fieldwork was done on the area during 2007 and 2008. The results show that the festival in Sarikiz hill and visitors density have negative effects on the natural resources of the protected area. Because of insufficient facilities and unplanned usage of the festival area, degredation of the plant habitat was observed. A number of precaution in Kazdag National Park should be taken in order to minimize the anthropogenic impacts.