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The Deep-Sea Discharge Project and the failure of environmental conservation in the Ergene Basin, Turkey

Semra Ocak
Boğaziçi University, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey; semra.ocak@std.bogazici.edu.tr

Ali Kerem Saysel
University of Bergen, Department of Geography, System Dynamics Group, Norway; & Boğaziçi University, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey; ali.saysel@bogazici.edu.tr

ABSTRACT: The success of environmental conservation programmes depends partly on governance mechanisms. Top-down governance can hinder participation and thus increase the likelihood that programmes will fail. In this paper, we argue that there is a strong link between the failure of environmental conservation in the Ergene Basin and Turkey’s centralised, top-down environmental governance. Focusing on environmental planning processes, we discuss the conservation efforts aimed at remedying intense pollution, the reactions to ongoing environmental degradation, and the programmes that were designed to control pollution. To understand the main causes of the environmental conservation failure, we investigated the pollution control efforts of both local professionals and the central authorities. We analysed the environmental planning process, which emphasised regional sustainable development, and we examined the action plan for pollution control that was designed by the central authority and included the partial implementation of a flagship Deep-Sea Discharge project. We found that – in neoliberal Turkey where environmental issues are deprioritised – there had been a deliberate shift in power from local to central authorities. We suggest that this shift had hindered comprehensive participation in planning and thus had played a crucial role in the failure of environmental conservation in the Ergene Basin.

KEYWORDS: Water governance, environmental conservation failure, democratic participation, environmental planning, Ergene River, Turkey