Announcement of Turkey Receives Support for Watershed Rehabilitation on June 1, 2004

Turkey Receives Support For Watershed Rehabilitation Contacts: Washington: Merrell Tuck-Primdahl (202) 473-9516 Email: Mtuckprimdahl@worldbank.org WASHINGTON, June 1, 2004– The World Bank today approved the Anatolia Watershed Rehabilitation Project for the Republic of Turkey. By promoting sustainable natural resource management in twenty-eight microcatchments in Anatolia and Turkey’s Black Sea Region, the project will help reduce environmental damage and raise incomes of communities affected by resource degradation. The project is being funded by a loan of US$20.0 million from the World Bank and a US$ 7.0 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund. The project is also expected to receive contributions of about US$18.0 million equivalent from the Turkish government and project beneficiaries. The project encourages a community-based, integrated approach to natural resource management and is designed to: § introduce environmentally-friendly farming and forestry production practices to raise land productivity; § help reduce nutrient discharge from agricultural sources into the Black Sea; § strengthen the policy formulation and regulatory capacity towards meeting European Union (EU) standards for agricultural nutrient pollution control; § improve the overall framework for river basin planning and management in the context of EU directives on water; and § strengthen institutional capacity to promote sustainable natural resource management and to raise public awareness about resource degradation issues. The project will build on the recently-closed World Bank-funded Eastern Anatolia Watershed Project. It is also Turkey’s contribution to a regional effort seeking to reduce nutrient flow to the Black Sea under the Strategic Action Plan for the Protection and Rehabilitation of the Black Sea. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a mechanism for providing new and additional grant and concessional funding to meet the agreed incremental costs of measures to achieve agreed global environmental benefits in the four focal areas - Climate change; Biological diversity; International waters; and Ozone layer depletion. GEF also supports the work of the global agreements to combat desertification and eliminate persistent organic pollutants. The World Bank Group is one of GEF’s implementing agencies and supports countries in preparing GEF co-financed projects and supervises their implementation. It plays the primary role in ensuring the development and management of investment projects. The Bank draws upon its investment experience in eligible countries to promote investment opportunities and to mobilize private sector, bilateral, multilateral, and other government and non-government sector resources that are consistent with GEF objectives and national sustainable development strategies. Since 1991, the World Bank Group has committed $1.52 billion in GEF resources and $2.25 billion in Bank group co-financing for GEF projects in 80 countries. In addition to GEF and Bank resources, it has mobilized additional co-financing of $5.48 billion from other donors. For further information on Bank’s GEF program, visit http://www.worldbank.org/gef . For further information on GEF, visit http://www.gefweb.org. For more information about the World Bank activities in environment, please visit our web site at http://www.worldbank.org/environment