Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
 | 
Online Publication Date: 20 Apr 2012

Political Ecologies of Turkey's Wetlands and Lake Burdur: The Case of Demirel and the Duck

Page Range: 45 – 71
DOI: 10.5555/arwg.15.1.x01264137077p8n7
Save
Download PDF

Turkey's combined coastal and inland wetlands are collectively larger than those of any other country in either the Middle East or Western Europe. In addition to their unique attributes as diverse ecosystems, wetlands are also vital because of their properties and functions. As in other countries, however, these ecological benefits and the wetland ecosystems themselves are threatened resulting from historic processes of wetland loss that were associated, throughout the 20th century, both with reclamation for settlement and agriculture and with drainage projects connected to public-health concerns. Over the past two decades, moreover, wetlands have been especially vulnerable amid state-led and now neo-liberal schemes for economic development. Using the case of Lake Burdur and its Ramsar registered wetlands, and relying on more than a decade of fieldwork in the region and a reading of associated environmentalist reports and lawsuits, this article surveys and analyzes some of the major threats facing these ecosystems in Turkey and factors associated with their protection.

Les zones humides côtières et continentales de Turquie ont une superficie supérieure à celles de n'importe quel autre pays du Moyen-Orient ou d'Europe occidentale. En plus de leurs caractères spécifiques en tant qu'écosystèmes divers, ces zones humides sont également essentielles de par leurs propriétés et leurs fonctions. Comme dans d'autres pays, cependant, tant les bénéfices écologiques que les écosystèmes des zones humides eux-mêmes sont menacés par des processus historiques de disparition, qui ont été associés, au cours du vingtième siècle, avec l'assèchement pour la colonisation et l'agriculture ou avec des projets de drainage mis en relation avec des questions de santé publique. De plus, au cours des deux dernières décennies, les zones humides ont été particulièrement vulnérables face aux programmes de développement étatiques, devenus maintenant néolibéraux. Cet article étudie et analyse certaines des menaces les plus importantes pesant sur ces écosystèmes ainsi que les facteurs associés à leur protection, en prenant le cas du Lac de Burdur en Turquie et de ses zones humides, inscrits dans la Convention de Ramsar. Il s'appuie sur plus d'une décennie de travail de terrain dans la région et sur l'étude de rapports environnementaux et de procédures juridiques.

Adams, W. A. 2001. Green development: Environment and sustainability in the Third World, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.

Ari, Y. 2001. Visions of a wetland: Linking culture and conservation at Lake Manyas, Turkey. PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin.

Ayaz, S. C. 2008. Post-treatment and reuse of tertiary treated wastewater by constructed wetlands. Desalination 226:249-55.

Aydin Coskun, A. 2010. Legislative framework of integrated water resource management in Turkey. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin 19:1517-26.

Aydogan, H. 1994. Ya insanlar, ya ordekler ucacak. Milliyet (25 July): 19. http://gazetearsivi.milliyet.com.tr. http://gazetearsivi.milliyet.com.tr

Beck, U. 1992. Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage.

Beck, U. 1999. World risk society. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Biersack, A., and Greenberg, J. B., eds. 2006. Reimagining political ecology. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.

BirdLife International. 2008. Oxyura leucocephala (white-headed duck). In IUCN 2011: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, version 2011.2. http://www.iucnredlist.org. http://www.iucnredlist.org

BirdLife International. 2011. Species factsheet: Oxyura leucocephala. http://www.birdlife.org. http://www.birdlife.org

Blaikie, P. 1985. The political economy of soil erosion in developing countries. London: Longman.

Blaikie, P., and Brookfield, H. 1987. Land degradation and society. London: Methuen.

Brenner, N., and Theodore, N., eds. 2002. Spaces of neoliberalism: Urban restructuring in North America and Western Europe. Oxford: Blackwell.

Bryant, R. L., and Bailey, S., eds. 1997. Third World political ecology. London: Routledge.

Castree, N., and Braun, B., eds. 2001. Social nature: Theory, practice, and politics. Oxford: Blackwell.

Colten, C. 2005. An unnatural metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from nature. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

Convention on Biological Diversity [CBD]. 1992. Convention on biological diversity. http://www.cbd.int/doc/legal/cbd-en.pdf. http://www.cbd.int/doc/legal/cbd-en.pdf

Cumhuriyet. 2010. Dunya Sulak Alanlar Gunu. Cumhuriyet, 1 February. http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/?hn=111852. http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/?hn=111852

Cumhuriyet. 2011a. Sulak alanlarimiz tehdit altinda. Cumhuriyet, 1 February. http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/?hn=213272. http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/?hn=213272

Cumhuriyet. 2011b. Burdur Golu tehlike altinda. Cumhuriyet, 1 December. http://cumhuriyet.com.tr/?hn=297286. http://cumhuriyet.com.tr/?hn=297286

de Groot, R. S. 1992. Functions of nature: Evaluation of nature in environmental planning, management and decision making. Groningen, Netherlands: Wolters-Noordhoff.

Delaney, D., and Leitner, H. 1996. The political construction of scale. Political Geography 16(2):93-97.

Demir, O., Acar, M., and Toprak, M. 2004. Anatolian tigers or Islamic capital: Prospects and challenges. Middle Eastern Studies 40(6):166-88.

Demirel, S. 1997. Opening remarks [unpublished transcript]. Eleventh Annual World Forestry Conference, Antalya, Turkey, 13-22 October.

Doga Dernegi. 2011. Göl Yoksa Burdur da Yok! http://dogadernegi.org/userfiles/burdur-kitapcik-print-web.pdf http://dogadernegi.org/userfiles/burdur-kitapcik-print-web.pdf

Evered, K. T. 2003. Political ecologies of wetland protection in Eurasia: An evaluation of critical sites in Turkey. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2-5 October.

Evered, K. T. 2004. Political ecologies of wetland protection in Turkey. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 14-19 March.

Evered, K. T. 2008. Symbolizing a modern Anatolia: Ankara as capital in Turkey's early republican landscape. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 28:326-41.

Evered, K. T., and Evered, E. O. 2011. Governing population, public health, and malaria in the early Turkish Republic. Journal of Historical Geography 37:470-82.

Forsyth, T. 2003. Critical political ecology: The politics of environmental science. London: Routledge.

Gardner, R. C. 2011. Lawyers, swamps, and money: U.S. wetland law, policy, and politics. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Giblett, R. 1996. Postmodern wetlands: Culture, history, ecology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Goodman, M. K., Boykoff, M. T., and Evered, K. T., eds. 2008. Contentious geographies: Environmental knowledge, meaning, and scale. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate.

Gosselink, J. G., and Maltby, E. 1990. Wetland losses and gains. In Wetlands: A threatened landscape, ed. M. Williams, 296-322. Cambridge: Blackwell.

Harvey, D. 2005. A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Heynen, N., McCarthy, J., Prudham, S., and Robbins, P., eds. 2007. Neoliberal environments: False promises and unnatural consequences. London: Routledge.

Hosgor, E. 2011. Islamic capital / Anatolian tigers. Middle Eastern Studies 47:343-60.

Hughes, B., Robinson, J. A., Green, A. J., Li, Z. W. D, and Mundkur, T., comps. 2006. International single species action plan for the conservation of the white-headed duck, Oxyura leucocephala. CMS Technical Series no. 13; AEWA Technical Series no. 8.

Hürriyet. 2011. Onun icin hala umit var. Hürriyet (7 December). http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/19404217.asp http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/19404217.asp

Keddy, P. A. 2000. Wetland ecology: Principles and conservation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kurt, B., Ozbagdatli, N., Gursoy, A., and Albayrak, T. 2002. Monitoring of white-headed duck in various wetlands of Turkey. Paper presented at the International Meeting on Balkan Cooperation for Birds and Wetlands, Thessaloniki, Greece, 9-10 March.

Larson, J. S., and Kusler, J. A. 1979. Preface. In Wetland functions and values—the state of our understanding: Proceedings of the National Symposium on Wetlands held in Disneyworld Village, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, November 7-10, 1978, ed. P. E. Greeson, J. R. Clark, and J. E. Clark. Minneapolis: American Water Resources Association.

Leitner, H., Peck, J., and Sheppard, E. S., eds. 2007. Contesting neoliberalism: Urban frontiers. New York: Guilford.

Magnin, G., and Yarar, M. 1997. Important bird areas in Turkey. Bebek-Istanbul: Dogal Hayati Koruma Dernegi.

Maltby, E. 1986. Waterlogged wealth: Why waste the world's wet places? London: International Institute for Environment and Development.

Mansfield, B. 2001. Thinking through scale: The role of state governance in globalizing North Pacific fisheries. Environment and Planning A 33:1807-27.

Mansfield, B. 2005. Beyond rescaling: Reintegrating the “national” as a dimension of scalar relations. Progress in Human Geography 29:458-73.

Marston, S. 2000. The social construction of scale. Progress in Human Geography 24:219-42.

Mercer, D. C. 1990. Recreation and wetlands: Impacts, conflict and policy issues. In Wetlands: A threatened landscape, ed. M. Williams, 267-95. Cambridge: Blackwell.

Milliyet. 2009. Turkiye hizla kuruyor. Milliyet (16 March). http://www.milliyet.com.tr http://www.milliyet.com.tr

Milliyet. 2011a. Turkiye'deki kuslar tukenme tehdidi altinda. Milliyet (10 January). http://www.milliyet.com.tr http://www.milliyet.com.tr

Milliyet. 2011b. Vali tapsiz “Burdur Golu'nu ulusal gundeme tasimak icin calisyoruz.” Milliyet (8 February). http://www.milliyet.com.tr http://www.milliyet.com.tr

Mitchell, T. 2002. Rule of experts: Egypt, techno-politics, modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Mitsch, W. J., and Gosselink, J. G. 2007. Wetlands, 4th edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.

Moser, M., Prentice, C., and Frazier, S. 1998. A global overview of wetland loss and degradation. Paper prepared by Wetlands International and presented at the Sixth Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties, Brisbane, Australia, March 1996. Reprint, http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-news-archives-2002—a-global-overview-of/main/ramsar/1-26-45-87%5E16905_4000_0__ http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-news-archives-2002—a-global-overview-of/main/ramsar/1-26-45-87%5E16905_4000_0__

National Research Council. 1995. Wetlands: Characteristics and boundaries. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.

Netting, R. M. 1986. Cultural ecology, 2nd ed. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland. Ozesmi, U. 1999. Conservation strategies for sustainable resource use in the Kizilirmak Delta in Turkey. PhD diss., University of Minnesota.

Peet, R., and Watts, M., eds. 2004. Liberation ecologies: Environment, development, social movements, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.

Pittman, C., and Waite, M. 2010. Paving paradise: Florida's vanishing wetlands and the failure of no net loss. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Ramsar (The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands). 1994. The Convention on Wetlands text, as amended in 1982 and 1987. http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-documents-texts-convention-on/main/ramsar/1-31-38%5E20671_4000_0__ http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-documents-texts-convention-on/main/ramsar/1-31-38%5E20671_4000_0__

Ramsar (The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands). 2009. The annotated Ramsar list: Turkey (updated 20 November). http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-pubs-annolist-annotated-ramsar-15840/main/ramsar/1-30-168%5E15840_4000_0__ http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-pubs-annolist-annotated-ramsar-15840/main/ramsar/1-30-168%5E15840_4000_0__

Ramsar (The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands). 2011a. Contracting parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (updated 9 December). http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-about-partiesparties/ main/ramsar/1-36-123%5E23808_4000_0__ http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-about-partiesparties/ main/ramsar/1-36-123%5E23808_4000_0__

Ramsar (The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands). 2011b. The list of wetlands of international importance (updated 9 December). http://www.ramsar.org/pdf/sitelist.pdf http://www.ramsar.org/pdf/sitelist.pdf

Ramsar (The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands). 2011c. List of Wetlands of international importance included in the Montreux record (updated 8 September).http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsardocuments- montreux-montreux-record/main/ramsar/1-31- 118%5E20972_4000_0__ http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsardocuments- montreux-montreux-record/main/ramsar/1-31- 118%5E20972_4000_0__

Robbins, P. 2004. Political ecology: A critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Rocheleau, D., Thomas-Slayter, B., and Wangari, E., eds. 1996. Feminist political ecology: Global issues and local experience. London: Routledge.

Sather, J. H., and Smith, R. D. 1984. An overview of major wetland functions and values. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Sazak, D. 1994. Seriatin kestigi ordekler. Milliyet (4 December): 18. http://gazetearsivi. milliyet.com.tr http://gazetearsivi. milliyet.com.tr

Sheppard, E. S., and McMaster, R. B., eds. 2004. Scale and geographic inquiry: Nature, society, and method. London: Blackwell.

Smith, N. 1992a. Contours of a spatialized politics: Homeless vehicles and the production of geographical space. Social Text 33:54-81.

Smith, N. 1992b. Geography, difference and the politics of scale. In Postmodernism and the social sciences, ed. J. Doherty, E. Graham, and M. Malek, 57-79. New York: St. Martin's.

Smith, N. 1996. Spaces of vulnerability: The space of flows and the politics of scale. Critique of Anthropology 16(1):63-77.

Steward, J. 1955. The theory of cultural change. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Sufian, S. M. 2007. Healing the land and the nation: Malaria and the Zionist project in Palestine, 1920-1947. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Tekeli, I., and Ilkin, S. 1999. Turkiye'de sitma mucadelesinin tarihi. In 70. Yilinda ulusal ve uluslararasi boyutlariyla Atatürk'ün büyük nutuk'u ve dönemi, ed. G. E. Kundakci, 209-55. Ankara: Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi Basim Isligi.

Turkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Turkey) [TC]. 1983. Environmental Law no. 2872, 9 August. Resmî Gazete (11 August 1983) #18132.

Turkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Turkey) [TC]. 1984. Avrupanin Yaban Hayati ve Yasama Ortamlarini Koruma Sozlesmesi, 9 January. Resmî Gazete (20 February) #18318.

Turkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Turkey) [TC]. 1993a. Circular No. B.02.O.PPG.O.12-383-02209: Protection of wetlands (FAO English translation). http://faolex.fao.org/docs/texts/tur13467.doc http://faolex.fao.org/docs/texts/tur13467.doc

Turkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Turkey) [TC]. 1993b. Ozellikle Su Kuslari Yasama Ortami Olarak Uluslar arasi Oneme Sahip Sulak Alanlar Hakkinda Sozlesmeye Katilmamizin Uygun Bulunmasina Dair Kanun, no. 3958, 28 December. Resmî Gazete (30 December) #21804.

United Nations [UN]. 2007. World urbanization prospects: The 2007 revision population database. http://esa.un.org/unup/ http://esa.un.org/unup/

United States Environmental Protection Agency [US EPA]. What is a watershed? http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/whatis.html http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/whatis.html

Whittaker, R. H., and Likens, G. E. 1973. Carbon in the biota. In Carbon in the biosphere: Proceedings of the 24th Brookhaven Symposium in Biology, Upton, NY, May 16-18, 1972, ed. G. M. Woodwell and E. R. Peacan, 281-302. Springfield, Virginia: National Technical Information Services.

Williams, M., ed. 1990a. Wetlands: A threatened landscape. Oxford: Blackwell.

Williams, M. 1990b. Understanding wetlands. In Wetlands: A threatened landscape, ed. M. Williams, 1-41. Oxford: Blackwell.

Williams, M. 1991. The human use of wetlands. Progress in Human Geography 15(1):1-22.

Wolf, E. 1972. Ownership and political ecology. Anthropological Quarterly 45:201-5.

World Conservation Monitoring Centre [WCMC]. 1996. Aphanius burduricus. In IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, version 2011.2. http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/1844/0 http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/1844/0

  • Download PDF