“The ecosystem here consists of a balance. Soil, water, insects, plants, animals — all of them are connected.”
-Yücel Okutur
Çandir island regenerative project
at a glance:
Honoring The Land & The People
“Regenerative organic farming protects the soil, feeds people, and involves sustainable soil management.”
The garden itself covers roughly four hectares, with around 1,500 pomegranate trees. Fields are small. Orchards are mixed. Pomegranate trees share space with citrus, olives, figs, and wild growth. Pruned branches are returned to the soil instead of removed. Chickens and turkeys move through the groves, contributing manure and managing insects. Water use is restrained. Tillage is shallow. Chemicals are absent.
Dalyan Eco Village rests inside of a completely natural formation — a system shaped by lakes, canals, rivers, and the sea over thousands of years. He explains that the delta began forming after earthquakes in the Mediterranean and slowly filled with sand, gravel, and soil carried down from the mountains. What exists today, says Yücel Okutur, is miraculous, because it could never be replicated by human design.
In the Dalyan Eco-Village farming is not about conquering nature, it’s about remembering how to belong to it. According to Yücel, when people interfere too much, the balance breaks. He explains that chemicals were once used in the eco village, and life began to disappear. When those inputs stopped, insects returned on their own, soil improved, and trees became stronger.
This philosophy extends beyond farming. Yücel says the eco-village is also about how people live — respecting limits, taking responsibility, and leaving something better behind.
“It’s everyone’s duty to protect our soils, our future.”
In 1988, the region received formal protection, becoming one of Türkiye’s first areas safeguarded not just for wildlife, but for its agricultural and cultural landscape. Hunting was banned. Wetlands were preserved. Development was restricted. The result is rare: a place where farming, biodiversity, and human settlement still coexist without one erasing the others.
Within this protected system sits Çandır Village — officially registered as Türkiye’s first ecological village. Here, agriculture follows the rules of the land rather than rewriting them.
Protect The Soil, Protect The Future
