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TURKEY'S WILD SNOWDROPS
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A decade of conservation efforts have created thriving snowdrop farms in the mountains of Turkey, which are helping to replace the illegal wild bulb trade.
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| A valley of wild snowdrops in Turkey |
It's a four hour drive from the Mediterranean coast of Turkey up into the high mountains where many of our spring bulbs: snowdrops, cyclamen, winter aconites, and tulips, originate. These plants, which brighten up our grey February days, are often dug up as bulbs from those snowy mountain slopes. As a result, the wild populations are now threatened. But, in the isolated mountain village of Dumlugoze, conservationists and villagers are working together to change that.
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| Turkish bulb pickers and their stranded tractor. |
As Lionel Kelleway drives up the narrow winding track, past precipitous drops towards the village, the problem is thrown into sharp relief as he encounters two heavily laden tractors and trailers stuck axle-deep in the mud. The sacks on the trailers turn out to be stuffed with 60,000 cyclamen bulbs, ripped from the wild and on their way to the exporters far below.
When he finally reaches Dumlugoze, he hears how this trade has brought a much needed supplement to the meager living of the 2000 villagers, some of whom struggle to afford even the cost of tea and sugar for day-to-day life. But they are having to walk farther and farther from the village to find the bulbs, because of the dramatic decline in the wild population over the last 50 years.
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| Ahmet Aktekin, Turkish bulb grower |
So this is where, ten years ago, conservationists started a groundbreaking project to help people cultivate bulbs - starting with snowdrops - on their own land, reducing the need to collect them from the wild. Lionel Kelleway talks to the village headman, to the head of the growers' association, and to villagers themselves. He finds a story of great individual successes through the project, benefits to the whole village as local politicians begin to pay attention to what the villagers are doing, and increased self-esteem for this poor community. But is that enough to stop the illegal bulb trade?
 Listen again to the programme
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RELATED LINKS |
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大象传媒 Nature - Snowdrops
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