Sekercioglu is establishing protected wetland London - James Campbell World renowned conservationist Cagan Sekercioglu has introduced numerous projects in his home land of Turkey. As one of the most cited scientists of the 21st century, and National Geographic’s 2013 Risk Taker of the year his positive impact on conservation is ever growing; a credit to his groundbreaking work. Cagan has agreed to give Arabstoday  monthly updates in his conservation projects and travels around the world. He revealed that he is currently working on establishing the first protected wetland area in Turkey, a feat for which he was recently awarded a grant from the prestigious Whitley Fund for Nature. “Turkey ranks in the bottom nine percent of world countries in terms of biodiversity and habitat conservation along with Haiti, Iraq, Libya and Syria,” said Cagan, yet he confided that Turkey has no excuse for this ranking given that the other countries suffer from the pains of war and conflict. “In economic terms Turkey is growing, but in environmental terms we lost 60 places in only six years in the global ranking of environmental performance among countries,” he added, stressing that development in Turkey should not come at the expense of environmental conservation. Turkey is one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world, and is almost entirely covered by three global biodiversity hotspots. An extraordinary 3,000 different species of plant, that can be found no where else in the world, thrive in Turkey. Cagan believes that the key to biodiversity is pride. ”Most people we start working with don’t know anything about biodiversity; they don’t understand how important their land is globally,” he said, stressing education is the key to enlightening people about the importance of conservation. “We want economic growth and environmental conservation to be in harmony,” said Cagan, “we promote ecotourism greatly.” When quizzed on what new environmental legislation he would like to see adopted by the UN and Turkey, Cagan argued that rather than creating new laws he would prefer to see existing laws protected. “Right now, existing legislation and existing environmental laws are being dismantled and destroyed. We are actually regressing,” he said, referring specifically to Turkey’s abolition of the need for environmental impact assessments before building. “I don’t want to create new legislation, I just want existing laws not to be destroyed.” Watch more of the interview in the video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaeqnRCQhpI&feature=youtu.bearabstoday