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Forestry Minister Eroğlu says Animal killers to serve time in prison

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Those who kill stray animals will no longer escape lightly with a fine, they will also have to serve time in prison, due to an amendment to the Animal Protection Law.

“The amendment [to the present Animal Protection Law] is now at the prime minister’s office, and those who kill stray animals will not only be fined but will also serve time in prison,” Forestry and Waterworks Minister Veysel Eroglu has said.

Speaking at the Biological Diversity Symposium in Ankara on Tuesday, organized to coincide with World Biological Diversity Day, the minister said Turkey is making elaborate preparations for the June summit of the United Nations in Rio on sustainable development.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also participate in the summit. Stressing that biodiversity is the real wealth of a country, Eroglu said he hopes the law to protect biodiversity — which was referred to Parliament for a second time after Parliament failed to discuss the bill during last year’s term — would be adopted by Parliament before the end of the term. Thanks to its geographical position, Turkey is a lucky country when it comes to biological diversity.

At the juncture of three bio-geographic regions, Turkey boasts around 12,000 species of plant, nearly 4,000 of which are endemic, making Turkey alone as rich in biodiversity as the entire European continent.

But as Hayri Duman, professor of biology at Gazi University, noted at the symposium, there is still much work to be done in the exploration of Turkey’s rich flora.

“In the last 10 years, about 500 new plant species, two-thirds of which are endemic, have been recorded in Turkey,” Duman said, adding that the number of endemic plants in Turkey is expected to increase with new research. But not everything is in perfect working order, apparently, as Duman’s speech was also reproachful. “We have kept saying for the last four to five years, ‘Let’s rewrite Turkey’s flora,’ but still not much progress has been achieved,” he complained, also adding that a well-functioning national botanical garden, which could also conduct research, is much needed.

Responding to the criticism, Minister Eroğlu said the ministry is ready to lend its support, including financial, to any project that would contribute to the exploration of the richness of biodiversity in Turkey. The minister also admitted he felt uncomfortable with the fact that many species in Turkey were actually discovered by foreign researchers, and declared the ministry ready to cooperate with universities in this area, calling on scholars to conduct studies in the countryside.

Turkey, which signed the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1996, is one of eight major gene centers in the world. The country hosts nearly 76,000 species of animals, plants and living organisms, over 8,000 of which are species peculiar to Turkey. Turkey has 41 national parks, and the number of nature parks has risen from 17 in 2003 to 185. Thanks to a forestry campaign started at the beginning of 2008, an area of 2.4 million hectares will have been reforested by the end of the year.

24.05.2012
SOURCE: DUNYA.COM

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