Project area: The geographic coverage of the project is defined as the hilly parts of the Murat river watershed (the upper watershed of the Murat/Euphrates river system), which includes upland districts and villages of Elaziğ, Bingöl and Muş provinces.

Target group: The primary target group of the Project would be poor women and men living in upland villages in the selected micro‑catchments. A secondary target group would be other non-farming residents who would also benefit from improvements to their physical environment and living standards. Together, these groups total an estimated 80,000 very poor potential direct beneficiaries (12,500 households).

Project objectives: The overall goal of the project is to reduce poverty among the targeted upland communities of the Murat river watershed. The development objective is to rehabilitate the natural resource base in selected micro-catchments of the Murat river watershed.

Project description: The project develops around three complementary components, which comprise capacity building in the co‑management of natural resource rehabilitation and care; investments in shared natural resources (land, soil, vegetation, water and energy); and investments in private agricultural-based income-generating activities utilizing the enhanced economic carrying capacity of accessible land. Specifically, project components are as follows:

• Natural resources and environmental management. This component aims at improving beneficiaries’ capacity to manage natural resource assets. The crucial activity is the development of enhanced modalities for sustainable natural resource rehabilitation and use, in support of the Government’s programme of environmental remedial works in the upper watersheds.
• Investments in natural resources and environmental assets. The aim of this component is to increase the sustainable economic carrying capacity of the Murat River watershed. The component consists of natural resource rehabilitative measures to be implemented by village communities under the direction of the regional General Directorate of Forestry. The component would provide a menu of activities that are focused on three interrelated natural resource elements: land, soil and vegetation; water; and energy. The objective would be to rehabilitate damaged natural resources and protect them from further degradation, erosion and pollution.
• Investments in small-scale agriculture. The component aims at increasing  profitable small-scale agricultural production. Small-scale agriculture would be supported on private land to boost earned incomes and to make better use of the improved land and water resources. The project would promote animal husbandry, horticulture, forage and field crops to increase the self-sufficiency of forest villages in agricultural production.

Important features: This project proposal responds to two closely interlinked problems facing the sustainable socio-economic development of Turkey: severely depleted soil and vegetative cover in large tracts of the higher-altitude Eastern parts of the country; and significant numbers of rural people in upland villages trapped in poverty by the diminished economic carrying capacity of the land upon which they depend.

The proposed project would support and develop further the Government’s campaign to rehabilitate and manage properly economically-significant natural resources as a means to reducing residual poverty in upland communities. The argument for IFAD investment in the Murat river watershed is that effective participatory rehabilitation and management of the natural resources (mostly land and water) would enable the resident population to (a) engage more in profitable sustainable agriculture, thereby underpinning their livelihoods, (b) improve living conditions, and (c) reduce the negative effects of flooding and river siltation downstream.

Potential cofinanciers and domestic contribution:The project would be funded mainly by IFAD with a loan of US$ 27.79 million and a grant of about US$ 0.43 million. The Government contribution is estimated at US$ 8.3 million. About US$ 2.9 million would be provided by villagers in participating communities.