Illegal structures invade living spaces of carettas

ANTALYA

While the demolition decision has not been implemented for 700 gazebos on the southern province of Antalya’s Kumköy coast, previously declared a nesting area for endangered caretta carettas, new gazebos have also been started to be built.

Kumköy coast in the Aksu district was declared a nesting area for caretta carettas, which has been approved to be in danger of extinction with a presidential decree in March 2021.

Accordingly, the Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry sent the demolition decision for 700 gazebos on the coast to the municipality in January 2022, as the gazebos damaged the habitats of caretta carettas.

Some vacationers who heard about the decision dismantled their gazebos, but even months after the announcement of the demolition decision, the remaining gazebos were not demolished.

On the other hand, though the Aksu Municipality announced that the demolition would be implemented on January 2022, the demolition was postponed to April 2022.

However, the implementation was not carried out at this date either.

Realizing that there was no demolition or sanction imposed, holidaymakers began to settle back in the area after the renovation they had made in the gazebos. In some areas, even new gazebos were built.

Ali Fuat Canbolat, a member of Hacettepe University, healthy caretta caretta offspring could not be produced due to reasons such as water use on the beach, sewage waste, and the change of the beach structure during the installation of gazebos with construction machinery.