In the project, diverse educational programs are implemented for different target groups, including teachers, students, experts, and decision-makers responsible for the management of protected areas. An educational program was designed for students, including wall painting and drama activities with the artists, poetry and drawing competitions among schools, and a kite festival with the artists. Additionally, nature corners displaying the features of steppes were established in certain schools. As part of the education and awareness-raising program, an educational kit was prepared for teachers and students. This kit is a source document for increasing the knowledge, interest and awareness of children about the steppe ecosystems of Şanlıurfa. With this reference kit, you will be able to explore the diversity and importance of steppes from different perspectives such as history, biology, geography, sustainability, and climate change.

In the project, diverse educational programs are implemented for different target groups, including teachers, students, experts and decision makers responsible for the management of protected areas. An educational program was designed for students, including wall painting and drama activities with the artists, poetry and drawing competitions among schools, and a kite festival with the artists. Additionally, nature corners displaying the features of steppes were established in certain schools. As part of the education and awareness-raising program, an educational kit was prepared for teachers and students. This kit is a source document for increasing the knowledge, interest and awareness of children about the steppe ecosystems of ?anl?urfa. With this reference kit, you will be able to explore the diversity and importance of steppes from different perspectives such as history, biology, geography, sustainability, and climate change.

The project is carried out collaboratively by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks (GDNCNP), General Directorate of Plant Production (GDPP), and General Directorate of Forestry (GDF) with the financial support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). This project along with the National Steppe Conservation Strategy shows the importance FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry attach to the conservation of Turkey’s rich and vulnerable steppe ecosystems, their sustainable and cooperative management and awareness-raising. This Strategy is instrumental in contributing to the conservation of unique steppe assets possessed by Turkey at national level as well as fulfillment of international commitments such as those arising from the International Convention on Biological Diversity, Aichi Goals of Convention on Biological Diversity and Convention to Combat Desertification. It appears that there are hardly any policies or legal documents directly geared towards steppe ecosystems in Turkey, as opposed to the legal and administrative documents for the conservation and management of mountain-forests, wetlands, and coastal and marine ecosystems. Therefore, the National Steppe Conservation Strategy and Action Plan assumes special importance.

Steppes—semi-arid biomes dominated by forbs, grasses, and grass-like species, and characterized by extremes of cold and heat—occupy enormous areas on four continents. Yet these ecosystems are among the least studied on our planet. Given that the birth and evolution of human beings have been so intimately interwoven with steppe regions, it is amazing that so few attempts have been made to compare and quantify the features of these regions. In this ground-breaking volume, five leading voices in horticulture—all staff members of Denver Botanic Gardens—examine the plants, climate, geology, and geography of the world’s steppes: central Asia, central and intermountain North America, Patagonia, and South Africa. Drawing upon their first-hand experience, the writers illuminate the distinctive features of each region, with a particular emphasis on the striking similarities between their floras. Each chapter includes a primer of species of horticultural interest—a rich resource for readers with an interest in steppe plants.

Among the vast corporate and smaller family-sized farms and agribusinesses of Nebraska, the old pioneering spirit of entrepreneurship is rising again, this time in the form of sustainable and organic growers, cooperatives, artisans, and visionaries-those who seek to enhance the quality of life and ensure its future on the farm, in the community, and throughout the world.

Steppes form one of the largest biomes. Drastic changes in steppe ecology, land use and livelihoods came with the emergence, and again with the collapse, of communist states. Excessive ploughing and vast influx of people into the steppe zone led to a strong decline in nomadic pastoralism in the Soviet Union and China and in severely degraded steppe ecosystems. In Mongolia nomadic pastoralism persisted, but steppes degraded because of strongly increased livestock loads. After the Soviet collapse steppes regenerated on huge tracts of fallow land. Presently, new, restorative steppe land management schemes are applied. On top of all these changes come strong effects of climate change in the northern part of the steppe zone. This book gives an up-to-date overview of changes in ecology, climate and use of the entire Eurasian steppe area and their effects on livelihoods of steppe people. It integrates knowledge that so far was available only in a spectrum of locally used languages.