'Tourism city' to be built on 380-hectare wetland declared Important Bird Area

Photos: milas.gov.tr

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A new project in Milas district of Muğla, a popular tourist spot in southwestern Turkey, will cause irreparable damage to wetlands under protection, an environmental group has warned.

Releasing a statement yesterday (September 9), the Muğla Environment Platform (MUÇEP) said that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for the project had been approved despite legal deficiencies.

On July 1, the group filed a lawsuit demanding the cancellation of the EIA report. It stated that the zoning plans and documents that the EIA report was based on were not up-to-date.

The project includes thousands of residential units, shopping malls and golf courses in the Bargilya Tuzla Wetland and Sarıçay Delta.

The wetland is also a foraging and breeding place for about 250 types of migratory birds, most notably pelicans, as well as gadwalls, kingfishers, flamingos and others.

The platform noted that the wetlands are under protection according to both international conventions (Ramsar, Barcelona and Biodiversity conventions) and national legislation (The Environment Law and the Regulation on the Protection of Wetlands).
In 2001, the 380-hectare wetland was registered as an Important Bird Area. It was taken under protection by the National Wetlands Commission in 2004. It is also a Ramsar candidate site.

"The fact that the EIA report subject to the lawsuit will irreversibly destroy ecological and local economic balances is revealed by the EIA report itself.

"We know that everyone who wants to social and historical assets and bonds in a realistic and long-term manner and everyone who adopts the culture of coexistence will oppose this project."

The project should be immediately halted to prevent damage on the wetlands, said the platform. "We are very concerned for this rare living space and thousands of living beings that it is home to, historical assets and coexistence.

"As we see the reports about the destruction of the wetlands in the country every day, let's keep the Bargilya Tuzla Wetland alive." (TP/VK)