Turkey Approves Coal Mining in Olive Groves

Summary

Controversial leg­is­la­tion in Turkey allows for min­ing in olive-cul­ti­vated areas to enhance energy pro­duc­tion, with the law per­mit­ting com­pa­nies to lease agri­cul­tural land for coal extrac­tion. The new mea­sure aims to increase Turkey’s energy self-suf­fi­ciency and has faced oppo­si­tion from farm­ers, envi­ron­men­tal groups, and oppo­si­tion politi­cians, lead­ing to phys­i­cal clashes in Parliament. The law includes a pro­vi­sion requir­ing the plant­ing of two olive trees for each one felled, but crit­ics argue that replac­ing older trees with younger ones may not be effec­tive in main­tain­ing olive pro­duc­tion poten­tial.

Controversial new leg­is­la­tion in Turkey allows for the exploita­tion of the country’s forests and agri­cul­tural land, includ­ing olive-cul­ti­vated areas, for min­ing for fos­sil fuels to sup­ple­ment the country’s energy pro­duc­tion. 

The pro­vi­sion is included in an omnibus bill passed by the Turkish par­lia­ment in July. It per­mits com­pa­nies to lease olive groves and other agri­cul­tural land for lig­nite coal extrac­tion for a period of ten to 20 years.

According to its pro­mot­ers, the new mea­sure is intended to make Turkey more self-suf­fi­cient in energy pro­duc­tion.

The pre­vi­ous attempt of the Turkish gov­ern­ment to open up olive groves to min­ing oper­a­tions was rejected by the coun­try’s par­lia­ment.

Under the new law, a board appointed by the Turkish pres­i­dent will exam­ine the pro­posed min­ing projects and either green-light them or not based on the country’s energy needs. 

If a project is approved, the min­ing com­pany will be able to over­ride the exist­ing devel­op­ment pro­tec­tion sta­tus of cer­tain areas and bypass envi­ron­men­tal require­ments under cer­tain cir­cum­stances.

The law also des­ig­nates two sep­a­rate areas in the Turkish province of Muğla, one of the country’s most promi­nent olive-grow­ing regions, which is also rich in lig­nite reserves, as crit­i­cal min­ing zones.

The law was met with fierce oppo­si­tion from farm­ers, envi­ron­men­tal groups and Turkish politi­cians of the oppo­si­tion.

Physical clashes took place in the Turkish Parliament between law­mak­ers from the rul­ing Justice and Development Party (AKP), who pro­posed the leg­is­la­tion and par­lia­men­tary mem­bers from the main oppo­si­tion Republican People’s Party (CHP).

“On one side is the thou­sand-year labor of the vil­lager. On the other hand, the five-to-ten-year profit of a few bosses,” said Tahsin Ocakli from the CHP. ​“And that’s the point.”

Farmers from across Turkey went on a hunger strike in a park near the Parliament build­ing while the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion was dis­cussed to protest the bill.

To ease the wide­spread protests, a require­ment was added to the law requir­ing the plant­ing of two olive trees for each olive tree felled or relo­cated for min­ing. 

However, crit­ics argued that olive trees can live on and remain pro­duc­tive for hun­dreds of years, so replac­ing cen­te­nar­ian olive trees with younger trees would prove inef­fi­cient in retain­ing an area’s poten­tial for olive pro­duc­tion.

The Turkish coal pro­duc­ers asso­ci­a­tion (YEKÜD), on the other hand, said that olive trees in the areas selected for coal min­ing will be relo­cated instead of being cut down and more olive tree saplings will be planted. 

“Energy inde­pen­dence is a national secu­rity issue,” said the asso­ci­a­tion’s board chair­man, Fatma Elif Yağl. ​“Turkey must reduce its for­eign depen­dency by using its domes­tic resources at the high­est level…Olive trees will not be cut, but will be care­fully moved.”

While renew­able energy is gain­ing ground in Turkey, fos­sil fuels remain the coun­try’s main fuel source for elec­tric­ity pro­duc­tion. 

In 2023, half of the coun­try’s energy needs were cov­ered by burn­ing coal and oil, accord­ing to the International Energy Agency (IEA), while only around 12 per­cent came from renew­able energy sources. 

The coun­try is also among the world’s most sig­nif­i­cant olive oil and table olive pro­duc­ers, with the national pro­duc­tion exceed­ing 400,000 met­ric tons for olive oil and 700,000 tons for table olives in boun­ti­ful years.

In Muğla’s Milas dis­trict in the south­west of the coun­try, local olive farm­ers were stunned to find out that part of the dis­trict has been iden­ti­fied as an essen­tial min­ing area by the new law. 

“This is the first time some­thing like this has hap­pened to us,” said Hüseyin Uzun, an olive farmer from Hasanlar, a vil­lage within the des­ig­nated area for min­ing. ​“We were dev­as­tated to learn that our vil­lage was within the coor­di­nates out­lined in the bill. I have over 300 trees, all of which I planted myself. I nur­tured them like chil­dren.”

A 2022 study also found that the expan­sion of the Milas olive oil sec­tor would be more ben­e­fi­cial to the local econ­omy than coal min­ing. 

Turkey has long been safe­guard­ing its olive-grow­ing areas. The Olive Cultivation Law — offi­cially known as Law No. 3573 — was first enacted in 1939 to pro­tect the country’s olive groves and boost olive pro­duc­tion.

The law spec­i­fied that no plant facil­i­ties emit­ting dust or chem­i­cal waste could oper­ate closer than three kilo­me­ters from olive-cul­ti­vated areas. Over the past decades, sev­eral failed attempts by Turkish law­mak­ers took place to over­turn the legal pro­tec­tion given to olive groves from indus­tries threat­en­ing to encroach on their land.

“This time, the amend­ment doesn’t just erode the olive law, it directly con­tra­dicts it,” said Emel Türker-Alpay, cli­mate and energy cam­paign con­sul­tant for Greenpeace Turkey. ​“By intro­duc­ing vague ​‘excep­tions,’ it opens the door to sys­tem­atic destruc­tion of pro­tected groves.”

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