Sekercioglu Turkey has a huge of natural environments, from Mediterranean to coastal mountains. But many of these for of new dams and roads. Cagan Sekercioglu are threatened by the construction of has been working hard to some these areas. He is the first conservationist to win n 2008, he won his first award for his work to protect the natural environment around ake home to over 40,000 birds of 227 species. research s work included into the local wildlife, environmental education programmes for schools and promoting nature tourism to support the local economy He won the award again in 2013 after he persuaded the government to create Turkey's first Wildlife Approximately 4.5 million trees connect the National Park to the forests along the Black Sea coast and the Caucasus mountains in neighbouring Georgia. This will allow large animals, such as the wolf, brown bear and Caucasian lynx, to move freely and safely. Cagan's interest imconservation began when, as a teenager in Istanbul, a local wetland area where he had played as a small child was destroyed. This early experience inspired his life's work of protecting Turkey's wildlife habitats. For his next mission, he hopes to stop the construction of a dam that could destroy one of the world's most important wetlands.