The second part, entitled ‘Environmental Management in Turkey’, provides an
overall understanding of the evolving and prevailing paradigms of legislation and
administrative practices in environmental policy in Turkey.
Süheyla Suzan Gökalp Alıca provides a thorough analysis of the evolution and
current status of environmental legislation and administration in Turkey. Throughout
her contribution, which is entitled ‘Environmental Administration in Turkey’, she
explains the institutionalization efforts which have been going on for approximately
forty years. She asserts that the environmental public administration could not
function effectively because its budget was inadequate and its staff were not
endowed with sufficient authority. Since the initial period when the environmental
organization was established as an Undersecretariat, its conflict of authority with
other public entities and institutions has not ended and the managerial problems are
not just limited to conflicts and overlapping authorities, duties and responsibilities;
uncertainty and instability in environmental organization also prevent the development of an effective environmental administration system. Giving a detailed information the new presidential governmental system adopted as a result of the
referendum on constitutional amendment (16 April 2017), and the Presidential and
Parliamentary General Elections (24 June 2018), and stating that the reorganisation
of environmental administration is still ongoing, she argues that institutionalisation
is a significant problem in Turkey and the improvement of environmental protection
is not possible without solving this problem.
The second part continues with a chapter on a highly contested subject in
Turkey’s environmental policy, namely Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
Şule Güneş explains how EIA has become the main environmental management
tool in Turkey, and stresses that even though a considerable number of EIA
applications are made in Turkey, the efficiency of EIA as a tool is still debatable due
to structural and paradigmatic reasons. She identifies the means and tools as well as
the process of incorporating the EIA system into the Turkish environmental agenda.
She also evaluates the EIA procedure from a critical perspective, focusing on the
strengths and weaknesses of the whole system. In her conclusion, she underlines
that the way to identify and address the challenges is greatly conditioned by the
political discourse, which is shaped by the political culture of society. Turkey’s
commitment to sustainability as a value is expected to be more strongly reflected in
the environmental field and will hopefully also stimulate both the practitioners and
decision-making bodies to address the core challenges faced in the EIA system.
The second part ends with ‘Instruments of Environmental Compliance in
Turkey’ by Zerrin Savaşan. In this chapter, the author provides an assessment of the
environmental compliance mechanism operating in Turkey. It is effectively a
continuation of the previous chapters which provide background information on
environmental law and administration in Turkey, as it focuses on the functioning of
Turkey’s environmental law in practice, examining its implementation, compliance
and enforcement to give the reader a better understanding of legal matters in
practice. In this respect, she examines the ways of ensuring environmental implementation, compliance and enforcement on the basis of environmental permits and
licences, environmental impact assessment (EIA) applications and decisions,
4
Z. Savaşan
overall understanding of the evolving and prevailing paradigms of legislation and
administrative practices in environmental policy in Turkey.
Süheyla Suzan Gökalp Alıca provides a thorough analysis of the evolution and
current status of environmental legislation and administration in Turkey. Throughout
her contribution, which is entitled ‘Environmental Administration in Turkey’, she
explains the institutionalization efforts which have been going on for approximately
forty years. She asserts that the environmental public administration could not
function effectively because its budget was inadequate and its staff were not
endowed with sufficient authority. Since the initial period when the environmental
organization was established as an Undersecretariat, its conflict of authority with
other public entities and institutions has not ended and the managerial problems are
not just limited to conflicts and overlapping authorities, duties and responsibilities;
uncertainty and instability in environmental organization also prevent the development of an effective environmental administration system. Giving a detailed information the new presidential governmental system adopted as a result of the
referendum on constitutional amendment (16 April 2017), and the Presidential and
Parliamentary General Elections (24 June 2018), and stating that the reorganisation
of environmental administration is still ongoing, she argues that institutionalisation
is a significant problem in Turkey and the improvement of environmental protection
is not possible without solving this problem.
The second part continues with a chapter on a highly contested subject in
Turkey’s environmental policy, namely Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
Şule Güneş explains how EIA has become the main environmental management
tool in Turkey, and stresses that even though a considerable number of EIA
applications are made in Turkey, the efficiency of EIA as a tool is still debatable due
to structural and paradigmatic reasons. She identifies the means and tools as well as
the process of incorporating the EIA system into the Turkish environmental agenda.
She also evaluates the EIA procedure from a critical perspective, focusing on the
strengths and weaknesses of the whole system. In her conclusion, she underlines
that the way to identify and address the challenges is greatly conditioned by the
political discourse, which is shaped by the political culture of society. Turkey’s
commitment to sustainability as a value is expected to be more strongly reflected in
the environmental field and will hopefully also stimulate both the practitioners and
decision-making bodies to address the core challenges faced in the EIA system.
The second part ends with ‘Instruments of Environmental Compliance in
Turkey’ by Zerrin Savaşan. In this chapter, the author provides an assessment of the
environmental compliance mechanism operating in Turkey. It is effectively a
continuation of the previous chapters which provide background information on
environmental law and administration in Turkey, as it focuses on the functioning of
Turkey’s environmental law in practice, examining its implementation, compliance
and enforcement to give the reader a better understanding of legal matters in
practice. In this respect, she examines the ways of ensuring environmental implementation, compliance and enforcement on the basis of environmental permits and
licences, environmental impact assessment (EIA) applications and decisions,
4
Z. Savaşan