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THE WET LANDS 

Under the International Ramsar Treaty* all waters that are natural or artificial, temporary or permanent, stable or flowing, sweet or salty, that are less than six metres in depth at low tide, marsh land, reed land, and peat-bogs are covered under the definition of wet lands.z

Wet lands within the Muğla provincial border

The wet lands that are within the Muğla Province Special Environment Protected Region are as follows. The Kocagöl-Kükürtlü Göl and whole system of smaller and larger lakes around it.

Within the Fethiye-Göcek Special Environment Protected Region and the borders of the town of Dalaman there is the system formed where the Dalaman Stream meets the sea.

Within the Fethiye-Göcek Special Environment Protected Region and the borders of the town of Dalaman there is the Yanıklar, Kargı and Çiftlik regional system.

Within the Fethiye-Göcek Special Environment Protected Region and the borders of the town of Fethiye there is the Köyce_iz Lake and Dalyan channels.

Within the Köyceğiz-Dalyan Göcek Special Environment Protected Region and within the borders of Köyceğiz and Ortaca; the Gökova coast line region and river in spate system.

Within the Gökova-Akyaka Göcek Special Environment Protected Region and the Akyaka municipality and Akçapınar and Gökçe villages borders: the Azbük rivers spate system.

Finally there is the Gökova-Akyaka Göcek Special Environment Protected Region, encompassing the hamlet of Yerkesik on the Cove of Akbük.

*The International Regulations. The most important regulation concerning the protection of wet lands was signed in 1971 in city of Ramsar and is briefly known as RAMSAR Treaty, or in full as "The Treaty on the Protection of Internationally Important Wet Land Areas for Water Birds". The treaty, which in the long term aims to develop national wet land policies, has as its most important regulation what is know as the Ramsar list – the listing of internationally important wet land sites. This treaty was published in the Turkish Official Gazette, volume 21937, on the 17th of May, 1994, and Turkey ratified it in November 1994. Thus the Kuş Gölü (Bird Lake), Burdur Lake, Seyfe Lake, Sultan Sazlığı (reed-bed) and Göksu Delta were included among the international wet lands to be protected. The first direct national regulations concerning wet lands were issued in the Turkish Official Gazette, volume 24656, on the 30th of January, 2002, establishing the protection of the previously mentioned wet lands. Prior to this, there were national regulations, such as the Environment Law (Water Pollution Control Regulations), the Turkish Waterworks Authority (DS_) duties and its foundation law and the Health Authority, indirectly dealing with these areas.