Ever since the Belek region in the Mediterranean province of Antalya was declared a tourism area in 1990, the region's forests have started being sacrificed for golf courses that have experienced a boom as depicted by two aerial photographs taken two years apart.
The Belek region was declared a tourism zone in 1990 and was promoted as the place with the best and densest forests in Antalya but this description is no longer valid, the regional director of the Turkish Nature Preservation Association (TTKD), Hediye Gündüz, said.
The forests of Belek were the product of intense afforestation efforts in the 1990s, she said, adding that once the Tourism Ministry started to focus on the region's tourism potential after 1984, 45 hotels were opened on forestland.
Seven golf courses have been built near the hotels, while three more are currently being constructed.
People involved in the destruction of forests found a legal umbrella to hide under once the region became a tourism zone, Gündüz said.
"There used to be between 600,000 and 700,000 trees there. They cut down 500,000 of them," she said, claiming that only a few trees were left near roads to calm public anger while the real construction took place at the center of the forests.
The coastal regions of the forests are breeding grounds for caretta caretta sea turtles, while the vegetation is important for migrating birds that come to the region, she said. She also said that 109 different kinds of endangered bird species lived in the Belek forests.
Environment is important, but...:
Gündüz blamed the policies adopted by the Tourism Ministry over the years for the destruction of forests in Belek, also accusing the local Kadriye and Belek municipalities of failing to protest the interests of the people.
She said maintenance of golf courses needed incredible amounts of water. "A hectare of grass in a golf course needs between 10,000-15,000 cubic meters of water annually. A 100-hectare golf course needs around a million cubic meters of water, which is a very dangerous for our water-poor country," she said.
"I cannot say that everything that the tourism sector did was right," said Osman Ayık, the chairman of the Union of Mediterranean Hotels and Enterprises (AKTOB). Ayık blamed state policies as well, saying unlike other countries that view golf courses as land development projects, it is legally impossible to buy or sell land used for tourism.
Ayık also said a mistake was committed during planning on the Belek issue, as the forests were cut down while there were many other plots of land a little further from the shore. But he is among those who think that golf is an inevitable asset for tourism in developed countries.
Belek only suffered from a lack of care, planning, program and vision, head of Professional Hotel Administrators Association (POYD), Volkan Şimşek said.
"I suppose that the Belek situation was a result of the lack of vision," said Şimşek, underlining that there were many suitable empty plots of land in the area.
The Antalya Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association chairman, Ali Rıza Akıncı, (ANSİAD) said not every golf course construction requires cutting down forests, citing a course built by Silkar right on the beach that helped make the nature even greener as an example. Places allocated for golf courses must be chosen with care, according to Akıncı.
It is impossible to reject golf tourism as a whole, and even more courses are needed, but a balance between economic and environmental reality is needed, said Ahmet Barut, chairman of Turkish Hotels Federation (TÜROFED).
"Let the experts decide on the area for building golf courses," said Barut. "We never can say ('Let us build courses') for what it is worth."
Golf courses consume water:
Chemicals used to treat the grass will contaminate the water in the sea, rivers and underground water, Gündüz said.
As a result of the cases filed against the allocation of forestland for tourism purposes the Constitutional Court had decided that forestland could not be exploited for tourism. "But still, construction in the region is continuing at an accelerated pace, " she said.
The photographer that took the aerial photos of the forests in Belek, Timur Kara, said the photos he took spoke for themselves.
"When I saw the photos I grieved. There is an undeniable termination (of forests)," said Şimşek. "I am not in favor of destroying the forests, but golf is a necessity for tourism. A golf tourist will spend 10 times more than a regular traveler."