The Rape of Nature ...
TURKEY:
Τo Kίνημα
Τo Kίνημα
''The Great March of Anatolia''
(Büyük Anadolu Yürüyüşü)
(Büyük Anadolu Yürüyüşü)
The Great March of Anatolia
In the last ten years, the ownership of all our rivers and streams has been transferred to corporations in the energy business. Thousands of dams and hydroelectric power plants are being constructed. Our mountains are taken over by miners. Our lives are endangered with nuclear and thermal power stations. No one hears our voices. The seeds we have planted for thousands of years are disappearing. Our forests are being razed.
This is why we, the people of Anatolia have decided to rely on our own wills to save the life of Anatolia. We are joining together! We are getting together with all who possess a conscience for a walk that will last 40 days and 40 nights. We shall flow to Ankara like rivers and streams. We shall walk for the sake of our respect for the past and our commitment to the future of our children. To defend nature and our rights to live!
What is the Great March of Anatiolia?
The Great March of Anatolia is a movement which was started with the intention of preserving the integrity of Anatolia's water, nature and roots. This walk is open to anyone's participation. The walk is being entirely organized with the efforts of individual volunteers without any hierarchy, and without the involvement of any company or organization.
Manifesto
WE WON’T GIVE YOU ANATOLIA!
Our planet, along with all the living beings on it, is facing a destruction that is unprecedented in history.
Resulting from the current lifestyle of humans based on overconsumption, the destruction of nature is rapidly progressing to an irreversible point. Every 13 minutes, one species on the planet becomes extinct.
Today’s human sees overproduction and overconsumption as the only way to exist. This perception, with a thirst for profit, is materializing all our vital sources, turning all of them into a commodity.
The outcome of this system of consumption without any limits, is reflecting an even more horrifying picture in Turkey:
In the last 50 years, the combined area of all our wetlands destroyed, has exceeded the area of Marmara Sea. Since the 1960s, we have lost 40% of our wetlands.
Our mountains have been handed over to mining companies with more than 40 thousand permissions issued in the last ten years.
The sale of our forests has been put in action with the draft of 2B Act.
Until recently, we were one of the few remaining self-sufficient societies, but now, due to wrong agricultural policies, we have come to a point where we have to import the wheat for the bread we eat every day.
Rural populations have migrated to cities leaving their lands because of wrong agricultural policies that did not allow them to sustain themselves anymore, and now these lands have been given up to genetically modified (GM) crops and large agricultural companies that are only after profits.
Attempts have been made to confiscate our coasts, plateaus and forests by bending previous laws until today; and now they are all up for sale under new laws.
Forgetting that today we import everything, from the seeds we plant in our soils to the baby food we feed our children, from the machines used in power plants to the clothes we wear; our rivers and valleys are being looted in the name of reducing our dependency on foreign sources of energy.
Almost all the creeks of Anatolia have been sold to companies for the construction of hydroelectric power plants. If these plants, their number which exceeds 2000, are constructed; all the flowing creeks and rivers of Anatolia will be imprisoned to pipes and tunnels.
We now have had nuclear power plant projects added to Turkey’s energy agenda where everyday a new thermal power plant project is on the list. From now on, the future of our children is on mortgage.
Along with the few crops we are able to produce by our own means, the cultures and lifestyles of the producers will be destroyed.
Now we have to make a choice:
Either we will continue with our habits of consumption with no limits and destroying
nature along with ourselves or we are going to choose to live in harmony with nature.
We believe that it is our moral responsibility to civilizations that existed on these lands for thousands of years, to societies we belong to, to the existence of nature and to the future generations; therefore our conscience tells us to pick the latter.
We, who are now facing the threat of extinction along with our nature and habitats, are underlining the following facts:
•Nature exists on its own and humans are only a part of it.
•Nature, as the only source of our existence, cannot be alienated to and removed from our lives by discourses of “environment”.
•Nature is a living being. People, companies and governments cannot own nature and cannot interfere with it, disturbing its balance and mechanisms.
•No tenancy rights can be claimed over nature. Humans, like every other living being, are temporary. It is absolutely unacceptable that any one can own, privatize or sell Mother Nature, her mountains, forests, coasts, rivers and lakes in which future generations and other beings will be living in.
•A clean and healthy nature and as the first prerequisite of this, Water is the most fundamental birth right of all living beings. Any law or practices that violate this right are unacceptable.
•The sole needs of any one species cannot be a cause for the destruction of nature. Concepts such as “sustainable development”, “use and preservation balance”, “public interest” cannot be given as reasons for the exploitation of nature.
Based on these principles above, we are taking action for the realization of the following:
1
.The model for development that treats nature as a commodity must be abandoned; “Mother Nature’s right to live” must be protected by the Constitution.
2.
Based on the principle that “every person should be able to feed themselves in the lands they were born”, arrangements that prevent migration of rural populations to large cities and support traditional lifestyles must be implemented.
3.
All hydroelectric power plants and dams projects which threaten our rural livelihoods, our cultural heritage and biological diversity and which are motivated by a thirst for profit must be stopped. Work must start immediately to recover our natural habitats from the destructive effects of such practices so far.
4.
The draft of 2B Act, which paves the way for wiping out of our forests, must be cancelled immediately; and preparations to privatize forests must be stopped.
5.
Mining practices, which disregard protected areas, agricultural lands or living beings, must be stopped; all permissions given without any consideration of the consequences of these practices on our ecosystems must be cancelled.
6.
Wrong agricultural policies that result in soils to become infertile, driving rural populations to poverty whereas their main source of income is agriculture, and excessive use of water resources must be abandoned. All agricultural practices must take the balance of nature into account and ‘the right crop in the right place’ principle must be adopted.
7.
The use of hybrid seeds, GM crops and any chemicals in agriculture, which are threats to all living beings, must be stopped.
8.
Projects threatening our cultural heritages, such as Hasankeyf, which we have inherited from civilizations that lived on these lands before us, must be stopped immediately. These historical sites do not belong only to us, but to all humanity; therefore they must be protected with care and projects to preserve them for future generations must start immediately.
9.
Highway, bridge and housing projects planned without consideration of their social and ecologic costs that will result in larger waves of migration to the cities, must be stopped. Rail transport that has a lower carbon footprint must be developed and expanded.
10.
Investments for thermal and nuclear power plants, which a new one is added to existing ones everyday and which are indisputably harmful to nature, must be stopped immediately.
11.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA/ÇED) reports prepared by private consulting firms that are financed by companies, which cause damages to nature, with the permission of the Ministry of Forestry and Environment, and Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, which allow this to happen, must be cancelled immediately. Any project disregarding the delicate balance of nature, conscience of the general public, NGOs and decisions of local peoples must not be approved.
12.
The current Environment and Biodiversity Protection Act that allows commercial investments in all protected areas must be withdrawn and The Renewable Energy Act must be cancelled immediately. The status of existing protected areas must be raised and key sites of nature must be declared as protected areas for the preservation of biodiversity.
13.
“The Polluter pays” principle and its practice that allow private companies and public sector to destroy nature must be abandoned; legal arrangements must be made to give severe penalties to those who harm nature.
14.
The organizational and administrative structure that congregates the State Hydraulic Works (DSI) as an executive body with its investments, which interfere with the balance of nature and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which is responsible for the protection of environment must be changed immediately. Instead of defending private companies, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry must fulfill its actual duty, which is to protect the environment.
We, who believe that we are not the owner but a part of Mother Nature;
Reject all international and national laws, agreements and their implementation that threaten Mother Nature we exist in and her delicate balance, and which do not fulfill the principles and requests mentioned above.
Believe that preserving the balance of nature that is facing degradation today, is the first requisite for a happy and healthy life,
Have lost all our faith in the existing system to fulfill our requests, therefore we are standing up to defend our right to live along with the rights of our Mother Nature which we are a part of.
Starting in April 2011, from valleys, from villages, from towns and from cities, from all around Turkey, we are walking in caravans for 40 days and 40 nights to Ankara. And we are not returning until our demands are met.
We invite everyone, who believes that as human beings it is our moral responsibility to protect the delicate balance of nature, to support this movement.
WE WON’T GIVE YOU ANATOLIA!
ΠΗΓΗ:
http://vermeyoz.net/about/manifesto/
Our planet, along with all the living beings on it, is facing a destruction that is unprecedented in history.
Resulting from the current lifestyle of humans based on overconsumption, the destruction of nature is rapidly progressing to an irreversible point. Every 13 minutes, one species on the planet becomes extinct.
Today’s human sees overproduction and overconsumption as the only way to exist. This perception, with a thirst for profit, is materializing all our vital sources, turning all of them into a commodity.
The outcome of this system of consumption without any limits, is reflecting an even more horrifying picture in Turkey:
In the last 50 years, the combined area of all our wetlands destroyed, has exceeded the area of Marmara Sea. Since the 1960s, we have lost 40% of our wetlands.
Our mountains have been handed over to mining companies with more than 40 thousand permissions issued in the last ten years.
The sale of our forests has been put in action with the draft of 2B Act.
Until recently, we were one of the few remaining self-sufficient societies, but now, due to wrong agricultural policies, we have come to a point where we have to import the wheat for the bread we eat every day.
Rural populations have migrated to cities leaving their lands because of wrong agricultural policies that did not allow them to sustain themselves anymore, and now these lands have been given up to genetically modified (GM) crops and large agricultural companies that are only after profits.
Attempts have been made to confiscate our coasts, plateaus and forests by bending previous laws until today; and now they are all up for sale under new laws.
Forgetting that today we import everything, from the seeds we plant in our soils to the baby food we feed our children, from the machines used in power plants to the clothes we wear; our rivers and valleys are being looted in the name of reducing our dependency on foreign sources of energy.
Almost all the creeks of Anatolia have been sold to companies for the construction of hydroelectric power plants. If these plants, their number which exceeds 2000, are constructed; all the flowing creeks and rivers of Anatolia will be imprisoned to pipes and tunnels.
We now have had nuclear power plant projects added to Turkey’s energy agenda where everyday a new thermal power plant project is on the list. From now on, the future of our children is on mortgage.
Along with the few crops we are able to produce by our own means, the cultures and lifestyles of the producers will be destroyed.
Now we have to make a choice:
Either we will continue with our habits of consumption with no limits and destroying
nature along with ourselves or we are going to choose to live in harmony with nature.
We believe that it is our moral responsibility to civilizations that existed on these lands for thousands of years, to societies we belong to, to the existence of nature and to the future generations; therefore our conscience tells us to pick the latter.
We, who are now facing the threat of extinction along with our nature and habitats, are underlining the following facts:
•Nature exists on its own and humans are only a part of it.
•Nature, as the only source of our existence, cannot be alienated to and removed from our lives by discourses of “environment”.
•Nature is a living being. People, companies and governments cannot own nature and cannot interfere with it, disturbing its balance and mechanisms.
•No tenancy rights can be claimed over nature. Humans, like every other living being, are temporary. It is absolutely unacceptable that any one can own, privatize or sell Mother Nature, her mountains, forests, coasts, rivers and lakes in which future generations and other beings will be living in.
•A clean and healthy nature and as the first prerequisite of this, Water is the most fundamental birth right of all living beings. Any law or practices that violate this right are unacceptable.
•The sole needs of any one species cannot be a cause for the destruction of nature. Concepts such as “sustainable development”, “use and preservation balance”, “public interest” cannot be given as reasons for the exploitation of nature.
Based on these principles above, we are taking action for the realization of the following:
1
.The model for development that treats nature as a commodity must be abandoned; “Mother Nature’s right to live” must be protected by the Constitution.
2.
Based on the principle that “every person should be able to feed themselves in the lands they were born”, arrangements that prevent migration of rural populations to large cities and support traditional lifestyles must be implemented.
3.
All hydroelectric power plants and dams projects which threaten our rural livelihoods, our cultural heritage and biological diversity and which are motivated by a thirst for profit must be stopped. Work must start immediately to recover our natural habitats from the destructive effects of such practices so far.
4.
The draft of 2B Act, which paves the way for wiping out of our forests, must be cancelled immediately; and preparations to privatize forests must be stopped.
5.
Mining practices, which disregard protected areas, agricultural lands or living beings, must be stopped; all permissions given without any consideration of the consequences of these practices on our ecosystems must be cancelled.
6.
Wrong agricultural policies that result in soils to become infertile, driving rural populations to poverty whereas their main source of income is agriculture, and excessive use of water resources must be abandoned. All agricultural practices must take the balance of nature into account and ‘the right crop in the right place’ principle must be adopted.
7.
The use of hybrid seeds, GM crops and any chemicals in agriculture, which are threats to all living beings, must be stopped.
8.
Projects threatening our cultural heritages, such as Hasankeyf, which we have inherited from civilizations that lived on these lands before us, must be stopped immediately. These historical sites do not belong only to us, but to all humanity; therefore they must be protected with care and projects to preserve them for future generations must start immediately.
9.
Highway, bridge and housing projects planned without consideration of their social and ecologic costs that will result in larger waves of migration to the cities, must be stopped. Rail transport that has a lower carbon footprint must be developed and expanded.
10.
Investments for thermal and nuclear power plants, which a new one is added to existing ones everyday and which are indisputably harmful to nature, must be stopped immediately.
11.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA/ÇED) reports prepared by private consulting firms that are financed by companies, which cause damages to nature, with the permission of the Ministry of Forestry and Environment, and Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, which allow this to happen, must be cancelled immediately. Any project disregarding the delicate balance of nature, conscience of the general public, NGOs and decisions of local peoples must not be approved.
12.
The current Environment and Biodiversity Protection Act that allows commercial investments in all protected areas must be withdrawn and The Renewable Energy Act must be cancelled immediately. The status of existing protected areas must be raised and key sites of nature must be declared as protected areas for the preservation of biodiversity.
13.
“The Polluter pays” principle and its practice that allow private companies and public sector to destroy nature must be abandoned; legal arrangements must be made to give severe penalties to those who harm nature.
14.
The organizational and administrative structure that congregates the State Hydraulic Works (DSI) as an executive body with its investments, which interfere with the balance of nature and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which is responsible for the protection of environment must be changed immediately. Instead of defending private companies, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry must fulfill its actual duty, which is to protect the environment.
We, who believe that we are not the owner but a part of Mother Nature;
Reject all international and national laws, agreements and their implementation that threaten Mother Nature we exist in and her delicate balance, and which do not fulfill the principles and requests mentioned above.
Believe that preserving the balance of nature that is facing degradation today, is the first requisite for a happy and healthy life,
Have lost all our faith in the existing system to fulfill our requests, therefore we are standing up to defend our right to live along with the rights of our Mother Nature which we are a part of.
Starting in April 2011, from valleys, from villages, from towns and from cities, from all around Turkey, we are walking in caravans for 40 days and 40 nights to Ankara. And we are not returning until our demands are met.
We invite everyone, who believes that as human beings it is our moral responsibility to protect the delicate balance of nature, to support this movement.
WE WON’T GIVE YOU ANATOLIA!
ΠΗΓΗ:
http://vermeyoz.net/about/manifesto/