Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Protected area / relocation · Türkiye · 1987

Dalyan / Iztuzu Beach, Türkiye: Kaunos Beach Hotel project stopped (1987)

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
What the record lacks: 2 none on record · 2 not measured · 2 unclear See the gaps

Construction of an 1,800-bed hotel complex, the Kaunos Beach Hotel, began at Dalyan in April 1987 and drew protests from IUCN, Greenpeace, WWF and others. The project stopped in September 1987.

1,800 bedsHotel capacity of the stopped project
As given in secondary sources. Construction began in April 1987 and the project stopped in September 1987.

Status As of October 2026: the Kaunos Beach Hotel project stopped in September 1987; no court case is on record.

What?
Construction of the 1,800-bed Kaunos Beach Hotel began at Dalyan in April 1987, drew international protests, and stopped in September 1987. GRID-Arendal
Where?
Dalyan and Iztuzu Beach, Muğla province, Türkiye. GRID-Arendal
When?
Construction began in April 1987; the project stopped in September 1987. GRID-Arendal
Who?
Gained
None on record
Lost
None on record
Harmed
  • Dalyan / Iztuzu nesting area — Subject of Bern Convention Recommendation No. 8 (1987); no measured harm is on record in the sources reviewed Council of Europe, Bern Convention
Why?
Developers (not named) planned an 1,800-bed hotel complex on the beach; IUCN, Greenpeace, WWF and others protested. GRID-Arendal
How?
Through protests, a request for a moratorium by the WWF president to the Prime Minister, and a German bar on DEG development-aid investment, according to secondary sources. GRID-Arendal
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

According to secondary sources, construction of an 1,800-bed hotel complex, the Kaunos Beach Hotel, began at Dalyan in April 1987. IUCN, Greenpeace, WWF and others protested. Prince Philip, as WWF president, asked Prime Minister Turgut Ozal for a moratorium pending an environmental impact assessment. The German government barred the development bank DEG from investing development-aid money in the hotel.

The project stopped in September 1987. GRID-Arendal states that the project "was temporarily stopped after Prince Philip called for a moratorium". The Bern Convention Standing Committee had adopted Recommendation No. 8 (1987) "on the protection of marine turtles in Dalyan and other important areas in Turkey". No court case is on record. The sources reviewed do not give the exact sequence of the moratorium request, the German funding bar and the Turkish decision.

  1. 1987Construction of the Kaunos Beach Hotel begins (April); protests by IUCN, Greenpeace, WWF and others; Prince Philip, as WWF president, asks Prime Minister Turgut Ozal for a moratorium; Bern Convention Recommendation No. 8; project stops (September)

What was said

Claims, in the words of those who made them.

“was temporarily stopped after Prince Philip called for a moratorium”

GRID-Arendal, on the Kaunos Beach Hotel project · · GRID-Arendal

“on the protection of marine turtles in Dalyan and other important areas in Turkey”

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

    Recorded

    Who gained

    Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

    Reached nature or the ground

    Not published
    No figure published.

    Gained elsewhere

    Not totalled
    Currency: · Window: . All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.

    Responses on record

    • WWF (1987): Prince Philip, as WWF president, asked Prime Minister Turgut Ozal for a moratorium pending an environmental impact assessment. · GRID-Arendal

    In court and with insurers

    Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

    Lawsuits and rulings

    1. 1987–1987Outcome not on record
      Bern Convention Recommendation No. 8 (1987) on the protection of marine turtles in Dalyan and other important areas in Turkey
      Bern Convention Standing Committee (Council of Europe) · International court · Bern Convention Standing Committee → Türkiye

      A recommendation of the Standing Committee, not a court ruling; it is listed in Recommendation No. 66 (1998). No court case is on record. Council of Europe, Bern Convention

    Insurers

    No insurer decision on record.

    What nature saw

    Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

    Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

    Nesting at Dalyan / Iztuzu
    Not measured
    No nest counts or other measurements in the sources reviewed

    What we don't know

    Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
    No court case

    Nature

    • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

    Court

    • Unclear Bern Convention Recommendation No. 8 (1987) on the protection of marine turtles in Dalyan and other important areas in Turkey: outcome not on record.

    Record

    • None on record Not stated: the identity of the hotel developers in the sources reviewed.
    • Unclear Unclear: the exact sequence of the moratorium request, the German funding bar and the Turkish decision; only secondary sources describe it.
    • Not measured Not measured: no nest counts or other measurements of harm to nesting are given in the sources reviewed.
    • None on record No source on record for: the designation of Koycegiz-Dalyan as a Special Environmental Protection Area in 1988.

    Did the harm stop?

    The hotel project stopped in September 1987. The sources reviewed do not report later nesting data.

    Who paid?

    No payment is on record.

    Sources

    Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts— Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers✓ International bodies

    Communities and civil society

    International bodies

    Connected cases

    Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
    Terms used on this page

    Institutions

    IUCN Red List
    The International Union for Conservation of Nature and its global list assessing species' risk of extinction.

    Science and environment

    Hectare (ha)
    A unit of area equal to 10,000 square metres, about 2.5 acres. 100 hectares make one square kilometre.
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