impact on Turkey’s domestic change and hence on the development of environmental law, management and protection is not high. Therefore, the overall transposition of the EU acquis goes on in a limited way, and as a result, the capacity for
implementation and enforcement to ensure compliance still needs to be further
strengthened. And so, it is still debatable whether it has now become a mature and
well-established policy area within the country.
In brief, since the 1960s, environmental law and policies in Turkey have
undergone successive waves of change. Turkey’s efforts and achievements to
address and overcome the environmental concerns and challenges during this
period should not be underestimated. However, the road towards providing effective and applicable environmental policies in the country seems to be a long and
troublesome one, and to require strengthened efforts from all stakeholders.
Indeed, Turkey still has many environmental concerns and challenges that need
to be dealt with, e.g. during the UN climate change negotiations (COP 21) in Paris,
Turkey was criticized for several reasons, such as increasing its greenhouse gas
emissions, not talking about any commitment or reduction targets, and allocating
financial resources for building more coal-fired power plants, as well as planning
two nuclear power plants. The current ways of coping with these challenges can fail
to produce effective environmental policies based on the sustainable development
principle.
As the existing methods can fail to produce effective outcomes in practice,
Turkey also needs to seek alternative methods and new solutions based on the
lessons learned from past experiences in order to address these challenges
successfully.
This book aims to be one of the first to conduct a systematic and comprehensive
analysis of Turkish law and environmental policies. It is also designed to be the
precursor of new publications which deal more explicitly with learned lessons, new
perspectives, and solutions (with which Turkey may require further assistance in the
future), and also of specific works on the concerns, challenges and management
methods regarding fundamental themes of Turkish environmental law and policies,
such as air pollution, marine pollution and water pollution.
Therefore, it features research which provides a general systematic analysis of
key issues of Turkish environmental law and policies, and it highlights the related
concerns and challenges. Thus, under four main sections thought as the basic
structure of the book – Environmental Law in Turkey, Environmental Management
in Turkey, Addressing Environmental Struggles in Turkey, Environmental Justice
Movements from Bottom-up – it aims to increase knowledge by disseminating the
findings on environmental issues.
Following a multidisciplinary approach, with chapter contributions from leading
international scholars in different related fields, it aims to be of significant value to
graduate and postgraduate research students and policy-makers working in the field
of Turkish environmental law and policies.
Furthermore, given the previous absence of this kind of comprehensive book on
Turkish environmental law and policies, it makes a meaningful contribution to
Turkish environmental scholarship.
2
Z. Savaşan
implementation and enforcement to ensure compliance still needs to be further
strengthened. And so, it is still debatable whether it has now become a mature and
well-established policy area within the country.
In brief, since the 1960s, environmental law and policies in Turkey have
undergone successive waves of change. Turkey’s efforts and achievements to
address and overcome the environmental concerns and challenges during this
period should not be underestimated. However, the road towards providing effective and applicable environmental policies in the country seems to be a long and
troublesome one, and to require strengthened efforts from all stakeholders.
Indeed, Turkey still has many environmental concerns and challenges that need
to be dealt with, e.g. during the UN climate change negotiations (COP 21) in Paris,
Turkey was criticized for several reasons, such as increasing its greenhouse gas
emissions, not talking about any commitment or reduction targets, and allocating
financial resources for building more coal-fired power plants, as well as planning
two nuclear power plants. The current ways of coping with these challenges can fail
to produce effective environmental policies based on the sustainable development
principle.
As the existing methods can fail to produce effective outcomes in practice,
Turkey also needs to seek alternative methods and new solutions based on the
lessons learned from past experiences in order to address these challenges
successfully.
This book aims to be one of the first to conduct a systematic and comprehensive
analysis of Turkish law and environmental policies. It is also designed to be the
precursor of new publications which deal more explicitly with learned lessons, new
perspectives, and solutions (with which Turkey may require further assistance in the
future), and also of specific works on the concerns, challenges and management
methods regarding fundamental themes of Turkish environmental law and policies,
such as air pollution, marine pollution and water pollution.
Therefore, it features research which provides a general systematic analysis of
key issues of Turkish environmental law and policies, and it highlights the related
concerns and challenges. Thus, under four main sections thought as the basic
structure of the book – Environmental Law in Turkey, Environmental Management
in Turkey, Addressing Environmental Struggles in Turkey, Environmental Justice
Movements from Bottom-up – it aims to increase knowledge by disseminating the
findings on environmental issues.
Following a multidisciplinary approach, with chapter contributions from leading
international scholars in different related fields, it aims to be of significant value to
graduate and postgraduate research students and policy-makers working in the field
of Turkish environmental law and policies.
Furthermore, given the previous absence of this kind of comprehensive book on
Turkish environmental law and policies, it makes a meaningful contribution to
Turkish environmental scholarship.
2
Z. Savaşan