Unraveling multispecies lifeways: socio-ecological crises in the Köyceğiz-Dalyan Special Environmental Protection Area, Muğla, Turkey
New Perspectives on Turkey, 2026 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1017/npt.2026.10071
- Dergi Adı: New Perspectives on Turkey
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, ABI/INFORM, American History and Life, Historical Abstracts, Index Islamicus, Political Science Complete, Public Affairs Index
- Anahtar Kelimeler: deforestation, ecological crises, multispecies lifeways, Muğla, urban–rural migration
- Maltepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
This article explores how socio-ecological crises reshape the Köyceğiz-Dalyan region, Turkey’s first Special Environmental Protection Area, through a more-than-human approach. Based on multi-stage qualitative research conducted between 2018 and 2023, we argue that the region is experiencing interconnected socio-ecological crises that are transforming a long-standing multispecies web of life unique to the area. Our findings highlight two major shifts: first, deforestation, driven by agricultural land clearance, mining activities, and forest fires, has dismantled collaborative practices such as beekeeping, goat keeping, and small-scale agriculture, all of which sustained multispecies partnerships that maintained both biodiversity and traditional livelihoods. Second, waves of lifestyle migration, from middle-class retirees in the 1980s and 1990s to remote workers during COVID-19, have altered village demographics and transformed landscapes through construction that replaces agricultural lands and forests with residential developments. These interwoven transformations demonstrate how socio-ecological crises simultaneously unravel multispecies relationships, eliminate traditional sustainable livelihoods, and fragment life networks that once sustained both human communities and biodiversity.