The Uludağ Commission is established to supervise activities and to protect, develop and promote the country's largest winter and nature sports center located within the borders of northwestern Bursa province at an altitude of 2,543 meters (8,343 feet).
The decree on the establishment of the commission was published Thursday in Türkiye's Official Gazette.
According to the decree signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the body was formed to plan, manage, supervise and regulate activities carried out within natural sites of the protected Uludağ area.
The newly published law lays out the fundamentals for the protection, survival, development, promotion, planning, management and supervision of the Uludağ area, which has great importance in terms of tourism, as well as geological and biological assets, water and similar resource values, the decree read.
The presidential decree states the duties related to natural sites and assets previously assigned to the General Directorate of Conservation of Natural Heritage under the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change will be transferred to the Uludağ Area Commission.
According to the law, it will be essential to ensure controlled access to Uludağ and the security of the area. The procedures and principles regarding transportation, access control, ensuring area security, fees to be paid for parks and visitor centers and conditions for benefiting from Uludağ will be determined by the Uludağ Area Commission.
All kinds of plans, projects, practices, works and transactions regarding the immovable cultural and natural assets that need to be protected will also be carried out in accordance with the Uludağ Area Commission decisions.
The law will also ensure that fuel depots, industry and similar facilities will not be established in Uludağ. However, activities can be conducted only in areas that have received operating licenses under the Mining Law provisions.
Regulations such as the sale and establishment of privately owned immovables are also included in the new law, highlighting that the granting of permissions will be done with the approval of the same commission.
After the law comes into force, penalties for those who do not comply with the regulations will be applied. Besides, according to the law, the administrative fines, depending on the type of violation, will vary from TL 10,000 ($531.60) to TL 500,000.
