TURKEY: ENVIRONMENTAL HIGHLIGHTS, MARCH 2003

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 002287 SIPDIS STATE FOR OES, EUR/SE E.O.12958: N/A TAGS: SENV TBIO TU SUBJECT: TURKEY: ENVIRONMENTAL HIGHLIGHTS, MARCH 2003 REF: ANKARA 1304 (U) This is one of a series of cables providing updates on environmental issues in Turkey. Below are topics covered in this cable: ¶1. Toxic Waste Update ¶2. Parliament Rings up "NO SALE" of Forests ¶3. First EIA Guidelines for Provinces ¶4. REC Update ¶5. Big Izmir Channel Project Gets Bigger -------------- -- ¶1. TOXIC WASTE UPDATE a) After missing their January meeting in Geneva with the Basel Convention Secretariat, GOT representatives reached an agreement with Spain and the Basel Secretariat on the disposition of "Ulla," the ship that departed three years ago from Spain and landed on Turkey's Mediterranean shores with a cargo of toxic fly ash. The GOS has agreed to urge the company that owns the ship to take it back, waste materials and all. Meanwhile, the GOT is scouring its laws to assure that no loophole could prevent the ship from departing, or make Turkey liable. b) A representative of the Basel Convention Secretariat told REO recently that the Secretariat will leave the disposition of the French-flagged "Sea Beirut" to Turkey and France to work out between them. A Turkish company brought the "Sea Beirut" to shipbreaking facilities at Aliaga (Izmir) last year without knowing the ship contained hazardous substances. The boatbreaking facilities in Aliaga are not up to international standards, driving Turkey to press for the ship's removal in lieu of its dismantlement. c) GOT is preparing for the arrival of an Italian technical delegation that will examine some of the thousands of barrels of toxins that that washed ashore on Turkey's Black Sea early 2002. The barrels were allegedly dumped illegally in the Black Sea in 1987 and remained submerged with their contain toxic contents until surfacing last year. The waste is believed to be of Italian origin. ¶2. PARLIAMENT RINGS UP "NO SALE" ON FOREST. In a close vote (366 votes received, 367 votes required) on 4/4, Parliament voted against approving the sale of forest land, even though the acreage had lost its forest characteristics prior to 1981 and cannot be rehabilitied or returned to forest condition. Forest Minister Osman Pepe announced the sale on 3/19, expecting to sell off five billion m2 (500,000 hectares),or about 2-2.5 percent of Turkey's total forest land, to raise $20 - 25 billion in revenue. The sale would have increased the amount of forest acreage in private hands from .1 percent to 10 percent, drawing closer to the EU average of 65 percent. ¶3. FIRST EIA PROVINCIAL GUIDELINES FOR ISSUED. The Ministry of Environment (MOE) issued Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) guidelines on 3/1 for provincial governorates in an effort to eliminate the widely differing review criteria applied from province to province. The guidelines are the Ministry's first effort at standardizing review criteria for EIAs since the EIA regulation was passed in 1993. The newly issued guidelines apply only to projects that are projected to have a low level of impact on the environment. ¶4. REC TURKEY UPDATE. MFA Environment Department Head Asli Oral projected that Parliament will wait until later this Spring to consider ratification of the Charter and Bilateral Agreement for the proposed Regional Environmental Center (REC) in Ankara. She reiterated that the future legal status of the REC is still in question (international organization, association or special designation). ¶5. IZMIR's "BIG CHANNEL" GETS BIGGER. Izmir Metropolitan Municipality's "Big Channel Project" designed to reduce wastewater discharge into the Izmir Gulf is expanding to three neighboring districts outside the metropolitan municipality. The expansion adds $350,000 to the cost of $80 million-project, which was funded entirely from city resources. In a press release, Mayor Ahmet Piristina said the project would also address the pollution dumped into Izmir Gulf from the Gediz River, a carrier of significant industrial pollution. PEARSON