Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Bird Census News, cilt.1, sa.19, ss.16-33, 2006 (Hakemli Dergi)
Introduction
Six years ago, in spirit with Saint-Exupeıy our goal was not to foresee or
design the future of birdwatching and conservation in Turkey, but to enable
the growth of a conservation-minded birdwatching community. As any
community, the birdwatching community acquires specific characteristics
based on initial conditions and subsequent historical developments. The
birdıvatching community in Turkey can therefore be defîned as an institution
"a group of people who come together with specific interests and goals and
behave within formal or informal rules and a frame that is socially
acceptable" (Ostrom, 1996). Birdwatchers ali around the world share an
interest towards birds, but how they express that interest is as diverse as
finches on the Galapagos.
Let us first define the current institutional structure of the Turkish
birdwatching community and then outline how KuşBank - an internet based
Citizen Science project for bird conservation - has contributed to build
capacity and strengthen the existing institutional structure towards
conservation-minded birdwatching. The Turkish birdwatching community
has göne through a rapid growth from only about 20 people in 1990 to about
1000 in 2006. But when we projected this increase in 2000 it was also a
cause of anxiety. Because if the community would have not found ways to
sustain the enthusiasm and the conservation orientation, the institutional
evolution could have lead to a direction that values birdwatching for
personal enjoyment and listing (twitching) only. Through the institutional
structures built and maintained we ended up with a birdıvatching culture that believes in birding with a purpose and primarily values conservation of
birds and their habitat.
Institutional analysis
The institutional analyses show that birdwatchers in Turkey are organized
through:
1. an internet based email group called Toygar,
2. an internet site called KuşTR,
3. a regular bulletin edited and distributed to ali the birdwatchers by Doğa
Derneği,
4. National Birdwatching Conferences and regular community birdwatching.
5. an internet based database called - KuşBank.
Toygar, an internet based email list:
Toygar is an email group (listserver) that works under the platform of
Yahoogroups (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toygar). Emails sent to
Toygar by its members are distributed to ali other members. The
birdwatching community is not new to listservers. Between 1995 and 1999,
there was a birdwatching listserver on the Computer system of Middle East
Technical University but the number of its members never exceeded 20-30.
Founded in September 1999, Toygar has more than 10 emails per day and
has 580 members. By June 2006, 15000 messages were sent to Toygar.
While in 2000 one email per day was data and counts from a birdwatching
trip today there are on average 5 emails coming via KuşBank, which shows a
five fold increase in total reporting. Other mails include photo or sound
quizzes, questions and notices about birds, organizing activities, and
conservation problems. Toygar över time has taken on the role of the publiceye on submitted bird records to KuşBank. Unusual records are questioned
without being offensive, and participants are able to take criticism without
being defensive. Those unwritten rules are generally accepted. Toygar has
become a respectable, productive and enjoyable environment for information
exchange among birdwatchers. Also “Lark” a parallel yahoogroup has been
established for English speaking expatriate Birdwatchers in Turkey.
KuşTR - www.kustr.org
This website mostly operates as a living bulletin. At this website bird
watchers can learn what is happening in the birdwatching community, theIntroduction
Six years ago, in spirit with Saint-Exupeıy our goal was not to foresee or
design the future of birdwatching and conservation in Turkey, but to enable
the growth of a conservation-minded birdwatching community. As any
community, the birdwatching community acquires specific characteristics
based on initial conditions and subsequent historical developments. The
birdıvatching community in Turkey can therefore be defîned as an institution
"a group of people who come together with specific interests and goals and
behave within formal or informal rules and a frame that is socially
acceptable" (Ostrom, 1996). Birdwatchers ali around the world share an
interest towards birds, but how they express that interest is as diverse as
finches on the Galapagos.
Let us first define the current institutional structure of the Turkish
birdwatching community and then outline how KuşBank - an internet based
Citizen Science project for bird conservation - has contributed to build
capacity and strengthen the existing institutional structure towards
conservation-minded birdwatching. The Turkish birdwatching community
has göne through a rapid growth from only about 20 people in 1990 to about
1000 in 2006. But when we projected this increase in 2000 it was also a
cause of anxiety. Because if the community would have not found ways to
sustain the enthusiasm and the conservation orientation, the institutional
evolution could have lead to a direction that values birdwatching for
personal enjoyment and listing (twitching) only. Through the institutional
structures built and maintained we ended up with a birdıvatching culture Introduction
Six years ago, in spirit with Saint-Exupeıy our goal was not to foresee or
design the future of birdwatching and conservation in Turkey, but to enable
the growth of a conservation-minded birdwatching community. As any
community, the birdwatching community acquires specific characteristics
based on initial conditions and subsequent historical developments. The
birdıvatching community in Turkey can therefore be defîned as an institution
"a group of people who come together with specific interests and goals and
behave within formal or informal rules and a frame that is socially
acceptable" (Ostrom, 1996). Birdwatchers ali around the world share an
interest towards birds, but how they express that interest is as diverse as
finches on the Galapagos.
Let us first define the current institutional structure of the Turkish
birdwatching community and then outline how KuşBank - an internet based
Citizen Science project for bird conservation - has contributed to build
capacity and strengthen the existing institutional structure towards
conservation-minded birdwatching. The Turkish birdwatching community
has göne through a rapid growth from only about 20 people in 1990 to about
1000 in 2006. But when we projected this increase in 2000 it was also a
cause of anxiety. Because if the community would have not found ways to
sustain the enthusiasm and the conservation orientation, the institutional
evolution could have lead to a direction that values birdwatching for
personal enjoyment and listing (twitching) only. Through the institutional
structures built and maintained we ended up with a birdıvatching culture