Zafer Kızılkaya

Zafer Ali Kızılkaya (born 1969) is a Turkish marine advocate and engineer who is credited for expanding marine protected areas (MPAs) along Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

Kızılkaya was born in Ankara in 1969. Growing up, he watched Jacques Cousteau documentaries which inspired his admiration for the sea.

Kızılkaya's efforts to advocate and protect Turkey's coast stemmed from Turkey's marine ecosystem being under serious threat and facing a lot of damage due to several different factors like Climate change, illegal fishing, as well as overfishing and an increase in tourism.

Kızılkaya was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2023, given annually to six environmentalists who work in different continents. Kızılkaya is the first Turkish recipient of the prize.

Currently, he is the president and co-founder of an NGO named "Akdeniz Koruma Dernegi" ("Mediterranean Conservation Society" in Turkish). This NGO focuses on protecting and restoring the marine ecosystems on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.