“Presentation on the Biological Richness of Turkey and its Protection at the European Parliament ”
10 November 2005, Brussels

Upon invitation by Joost Lagendijk, Chairman of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, Mr. A. Nihat Gökyiğit, Chairman of the Turkish NGO TEMA, gave a presentation at the European Parliament on the subject of:
“The Biological Richness of Turkey and its Protection”

The presentation covered the various justifications for the very important ecological dimension of Turkey, in fact to the extend that Turkey’s membership will double the richness of EU ecosystem.

The presentation also emphasized the measures taken and the awareness built up in Turkey for the protection of such biological richness.

The participants were from the EU Parliament, European Commission, NGOs, business and media.

Turkey’s organic food potential could be explained by the following figures: Turkey’s consumption of both chemical fertilizers and agro chemicals per hectare are less than one third of that of the EU. In Turkey, there are still land which has not been subjected to any chemical fertilizers or agro chemicals. Potential place of organic farming is Turkey.

It is well known during the 21st century that an additional standard for measuring the level of wealth of a country is the total area of a country’s natural forests and the extent of its biological diversity.

93% of forests in Turkey are old natural forests. If you exclude Russia, White Russia and Ukraine, the ratio of natural forest area to total forest area in Europe is less than 1% compared to 93% of Turkey.

Yet another measure of a country’s natural wealth is its richness of biological diversity. The total number of plant species endemic to the EU less than 3000. Turkey alone however is home to 3062 endemic species and more yet to be discovered.

As well known, another sign of biological diversity is the number of bird species. Turkey alone has 456 bird species in comparison to a total of 560 species of Europe.

Based on these figures alone, we can say that if Turkey becomes a member of the EU, the biological richness of Europe will almost double.