Government Again Uses Forest Law Powers to Exclude Areas in 23 Provinces: More Land to Go!

In a move that has once again sparked significant concern among environmentalists and the public, the Turkish government has leveraged its authority under the Forest Law to declassify extensive areas across 23 provinces. This latest action, utilizing the controversial 'Ek Madde 16' (Additional Article 16) introduced in 2018, effectively removes these lands from protected forest status, opening them up to potential development and other uses.

Cumhuriyet has consistently reported on the implications of this legislation, which grants the government broad discretionary powers. The law permits the reclassification of lands deemed scientifically unnecessary for forest conservation, or those unsuitable for agricultural conversion. Crucially, it allows for areas with existing settlements or those deemed suitable for future development to be removed from forest boundaries by presidential decree. This process involves registering the declassified land under the Treasury's name, with a reciprocal obligation to allocate twice the area of state-owned or Treasury-owned land for new forestation projects.

The 23 provinces affected by this latest decision include Artvin, Aydın, Balıkesir, Bingöl, Bursa, Denizli, Elazığ, Gümüşhane, Karabük, Kocaeli, Kütahya, Malatya, Mersin, Muğla, Rize, Sakarya, Samsun, Sinop, Şanlıurfa, Tokat, Trabzon, Uşak, and Zonguldak. While the law stipulates that new forestation efforts will be undertaken on designated lands allocated by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, the sheer scale of declassification raises questions about the long-term impact on biodiversity and ecological balance.

From our perspective at Cumhuriyet, this repeated use of Article 16 represents a worrying trend of prioritizing development over environmental protection. While the government frames these actions as necessary for economic progress and land management, the potential loss of vital forest ecosystems is a grave concern for the future of our natural heritage. The transparency and justification behind such large-scale declassifications remain a subject of public scrutiny, and we will continue to monitor these developments closely.