Assessment of Mining Activities within Environmental Impact Assessment Process in Turkey: In Terms of Regulations and Resolutions of State Council

Abstract

When the dimensions of its environmental and social impacts are taken into consideration, mining activities should take place in the main part of the activities to which the EIA process is necessary to be applied. However, the mining activities have always been tried to be kept out of the EIA scope as of the first years in which the EIA process started to be applied in Turkey. In this study, the place of the mining activities having importance within the scope of the economic development policies of Turkey has been assessed within the EIA application process existent in the state for twenty-five years. The assessment has been conducted within the scope of the legal regulation provisions oriented to keep the mining activities out of the scope of EIA process and the legal resolutions related to these provisions and the efficiency of EIA process has been examined within the scope of the mining activities. The experience of the similar problems encountered in Turkey regarding the application of EIA is possible in many developing countries. The enforcement of all legal regulation provisions which prevent the applicability of EIA process having a past of more than 25 years as of the preparation of EIA reports and above 25 years as of the enforcement of Environment Law no. 2872 in an efficient way in Turkey, are against its essence within the scope of the principle of taking precaution and contradict with other regulations related to the protection of the environment should be ended.