Environmental issues in Turkey

Turkey hosts more than three thousand endemic plant species, has high diversity of other taxa, and is almost entirely covered by three of the world's thirty-five biodiversity hotspots. "Yet, Turkey's environmental laws and conservation efforts are eroding, not improving. This has precipitated a conservation crisis that has accelerated over the past decade. This crisis has been exacerbated by legislative developments that may leave Turkey with a nature conservation, legal framework that is weakened, and severely out of line with globally accepted principles". The main environmental issues in Turkey are the conservation of biodiversity, air pollution, water pollution, greenhouse gases, and land degradation.

"Turkey has a remarkable diversity of wildlife, due to its wide variety of habitats and unique position between three continents and three seas. Ill-considered development projects are threatening biodiversity, but a new wildlife corridor offers hope for further conservation progress." Turkish montane forests face major threats to their genetic diversity associated with over-exploitation, forest fragmentation, air pollution, and global climatic change.

Air pollution is particularly significant in urban areas; the problem is especially acute in Istanbul,Ankara, Erzurum, and Bursa, where the combustion of heating fuels increases particulate density in winter. Especially in Istanbul, increased car ownership causes frequent urban smog conditions. "Air pollution in urban centers, often caused by transport, and the use of small-scale burning of wood or coal, is linked to a range of health problems." "PM10 levels are 36.7 micrograms per cubic meter, much higher than the OECD average of 20.9 micrograms per cubic meter, and the annual guideline limit of 20 micrograms per cubic meter set by the World Health Organization." Although there is some monitoring of air pollution compared with other European countries, many air pollution indicators are not available. Regulations in Turkey do not contain any restrictions on the pollutant PM 2.5, which causes lung diseases. Greenpeace Mediterranean claim that the Afşin-Elbistan coal-fired plant is the power plant with the highest health risk in Europe, followed by the Soma coal-fired power plant, also from Turkey.

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Wikipedia