Wildlife is surrounded by waste all four
The garbage dump within the borders of Sarıkamış district of Kars has become famous as an unusual wildlife observation destination for the districts in recent years. Dozens of bears come to the dump to be fed with their cubs starting in the evening.
While it may be exciting for those who see brown bears up close for the first time, the images are very worrying for those using it to protect wildlife.
There are similar tables in settlements close to rich biodiversity features in Turkey. However, those who go to human waste management such as beekeeping, animal husbandry, agriculture and forestry are among the most exposed.
For example, Muğla’s Bördübet, Marmaris migration copper forests are among the spots where brown bear circles are observed in Turkey.
Muğla, on the other hand, is the province with the most intense beekeeping in Turkey with approximately 1 million beehives according to official access.
North Nature Association, which carries out wildlife conservation projects in Turkey. BBC Turkish According to his observations, the virgin forests here are full of waste from beekeeping:
“The first time we came across a bear here, we were showing the plastic packaging of sugar management as sugar cakes, which beekeepers give to bees. While the animal ate the beehives, it probably swallowed them too, and luckily it was able to dispose of it with the kilama.”
Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Koç University. İsmail Sağlam and Assistant in Wildlife Ecology and Nature Conservation Biology. prof. Morteza Naderi and writers Ercan Sikdokur and Elif Çeltik report that Turkey’s four-year-old wildlife is surrounded by waste.
It is home to the Gediz Delta, one of the largest wetlands in western Turkey in the Mediterranean Basin.
Delta is one of the 255 Important Bird Areas of the world that are critically endangered by national and international organizations.
The Menderes Basin in the west, with its Menderes rivers, contains some of Turkey’s most fertile lands.
These areas, which have great urbanization and industrial pressure, are located in the periphery of İzmir city center, which is one of the most challenging cities in terms of waste management in Turkey.
In the ‘Izmir 2021 Environmental Status Report’ prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, it is stated that the recycling of wastes is not carried out effectively in İzmir, as in other metropolitan cities, as a result of intensive and unplanned construction together with the migration from the village to the city.
in the report, “There is no suitable area left for disposal. Especially the wastes around the metropolitan area have reached large sizes, and the wastes of long years are removed by the district and town municipalities around the surface water resources, forest areas and roadside as a result of horses, resulting in water, land and air pollution. problems have arisen statements are included.
photographers, surveys of the Gediz Delta and the Menderes Plain, report that the degreasing waste dumping of remote areas continues at a serious level.
WASTE: FATAL ‘OPEN BUFFETS’ FOR WILDLIFE
Sarıkamış district of Kars is seen as an extension of the Caucasian biodiversity line, which is shown as one of the 34 most critical drives in terms of biodiversity in the world.
In many places in Turkey where there are settlements close to forests, it can be observed that wild animals go down to the city and feed on garbage.
Nature Conservation Center Biological Diversity Specialist Dr. Mustafa Durmuş says that they encounter such areas “almost everywhere” where they work in the field.
BBC TurkishAnswering the questions of Dr. According to Durmuş, “Using landfills, the areas where wastes are accumulated by wild storage method come to places where they can easily find food for most wild animal species.”
The open wastes have the characteristic of being “open talent” for the animals fed from here.
“There’s a lot of food and they don’t hunt for it. They eat what’s left of humans, but they also ingest plastics and other pests they take in. The cubs learn to feed from the litter,” Emrah Çoban, Northern Nature Society’s Science Coordinator, told the BBC.
Researchers from Koç University, who conducted research for the association, say that easy access to food can cause disturbances in the day-night rhythms of animals:
“The species that normally have more diurnal time can show a more nocturnal activity to avoid human influence but also to use these areas.
“Another intervention can occur during the hibernation times of species such as bears. The availability of ready-to-eat food throughout the year can cause bears to hibernate or go to bed late, and wake up early when they go to bed.”
Experts say the condition is not just bears, but many bird descriptions, as well as the aggression of many species such as rodents, stray dogs, wild boars, foxes, coyotes, wolves and bears.
WILDLIFE – HUMAN CONFLICT
These areas, where many species congregate, become a terminal point where disease vectors such as rabies can spread.
Hybridization, which is mentioned as another problem, means that hybrid individuals are formed as a result of mating of species belonging to the same genus, especially wolves, jackals and dogs.
This puts the consequences and progression of species such as wolves with low populations at risk, as genetic defects can result in the spread over time.
They hunt naturally in animals, keeping other populations in balance, or performing critical tasks such as obtaining the cells of the animals they feed on.
However, the balance of parts in these areas can be disrupted by different effects.
The proliferation of exemplary dog packs in these nests may result in the demise of other species such as wolves, roe deer, badgers, lynx, and wild cats.
Researchers say landfills exacerbate the wildlife-human conflict:
“Increasing numbers of species such as crows, gulls or wild boars in these areas can lead to an assessment of yields in circulating crops, such as berries, which are increasing in number.
“The artifact in the number of mammalian cells can cause an increase in traffic accidents around this area or cause these species to haunt the settlements and garbage they keep. For example, in places such as Bursa Uludağ, Tunceli Pülümür and Eskişehir Bozöyük, many examples of such encounters can be seen.”
ONE DONE OF STRAWBERRY FIELD IS GROWING WITH 65 KG PLASTIC LOAD IN CUKUROVA
A serious waste load is accumulating due to excursions such as greenhouse cultivation in the lands in the south of Turkey, which are famous for their fertility.
According to a situation in Çukuova, investigating the trade trade plastic footprint published by the German International Cooperation Agency in March 2022, an acre of watermelon field in the basin grows with a plastic load of approximately 50 kg and a strawberry field with a plastic load of 65 kg each season.
Dozens of chemical pesticides and fertilizers used by farmers every season are not included in this plastic load.
According to the report, plastic mulches that are not included in the base of the fields are largely not recycled:
“Seasonal farm workers deter hunters’ snakes of non-recyclable plastic mulch. This mulch then optimizes the plastics and burns them for cooking and warmth in stoves.”
In addition, goats released to graze on the field gnaw on plastic they find salty. Mulch plastic, which cannot be recycled and whose farmlands are abandoned, clogs the expansion systems of goats, causing deaths.
Crumbled plastics are transported to the Mediterranean via irrigation channels and cause microplastic pollution in the seas.
According to the Wildlife Conservation Foundation, most plastic waste is thrown into the Mediterranean from Turkey (144 tons per day).
‘LIKE TAURUS, THERE ARE GIANT WASTE PIECES IN LOCATIONS VERY FAR FROM HUMAN INFLUENCE’
Transhumance is another activity that is effective in reaching the high-protected pollution threat factor in the south, north and its direction, where animal husbandry is common in Turkey.
According to the researchers, places far away from human influence such as the highlands of the Eastern Black Sea region, the high places of Eastern Anatolia or the Taurus Mountains are among the places where large garbage heaps are observed:
“These are places where there is transhumance and the local people keep it here for a certain time of the year. Unfortunately, it is a fact that they leave a large amount of waste around the settlements during these trips and returns”.
According to the North Nature Association research, the forested areas of big cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Bursa, Kocaeli, Sakarya and the wastes used by picnickers are in the “had process”:
“You can observe this situation in every forest area you visit.
Experts say that wastes threaten all terrestrial and aquatic habitats with increasing severity.
“It would be fair to say that we have not observed a single stream that does not accumulate garbage throughout Turkey.”
Experts say that “as a result of the lack of control and the inability to deter penalties, the inappropriate registration of these wastes in places where they do not comply, unfortunately cannot be stopped.”
REGULAR STORAGE SHOULD BE THE ‘FINAL REMEDY’
According to the estimates of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), approximately 5.5 million tons of domestic waste landfills were published in 2020; 130 thousand tons of domestic waste was burned in the open, buried, dumped into a stream or land.
70 percent of the 32.3 million tons of waste collected in the waste-delivered municipalities was sent to landfills. Landfill means the burying of waste for storage in a controlled manner.
The method has been pushed to the very end of waste management services due to restrictions and is completely banned in some European countries.
Against this, it is still the most widely used method in Turkey.
Boğaziçi University Institute of Environmental Sciences Director Prof.
“The establishment of the waste management structure, the establishment of a system that will ensure the separate collection of the formed, especially the recyclable or recyclable ones, the evaluation of wastes, and the reintroduction of the waste and circular economy framework system will be a very important step.”