reporting, monitoring and inspecting systems, and administrative fines and suspension as tools of environmental enforcement.
The third part, ‘Addressing Environmental Struggles in Turkey’, which discusses environment-related challenges, starts with Emel Türker Alpay’s contribution, which focuses on the legal side of the environmental question in Turkey. In
her chapter titled ‘Environmental Cases in Turkey: A Project Experience’, she
analyses environmental cases, discussing the project process, challenges and results
of the EU-funded ‘Turkey’s Map of Environmental Violations’ Project undertaken
by Transparency International Turkey and the Environmental Law Association. She
describes the environment in which this project was run, and the challenges faced
during the Project. She also summarises its results, stressing some important legal
decisions which address the environmental struggle. In her concluding argument,
she indicates that Transparency International Turkey and the Environmental Law
Association have taken the first step towards a more powerful struggle against
environmental conflicts and have increased the number of good examples which
have the potential to increase efforts to safeguard the environment for future
generations.
Sezin İba Gürsoy contributes a chapter on food security in Turkey. She outlines
the capacity of the food supply system in Turkey and uncovers the concerns about
ensuring food security in Turkey, discussing the threats posed by the changing
demographic structure, refugee crises, climate change, increasing land and water
scarcities for food production and food price volatility. In her conclusion, she
suggests that to protect its own food security and to have sustainable agricultural
production, Turkey should institute sustainable land use and product planning,
conserve agricultural biodiversity, support family farming, and utilise effective
agricultural and environmentally compatible methods. Additionally, it should
increase support for rural agricultural development programmes which encourage
environmental protection on agriculture lands. As a result, she argues that to
guarantee future food security Turkey should establish agricultural policies compatible with social and economic policies at macro level.
Under the fourth thematic part, ‘Environmental Justice Movements from
Bottom-up’, R. Caner Sayan and Ayşegül Kibaroğlu, in their chapter ‘Exploring
Environmental Justice: Meaningful Participation and Turkey’s Small-Scale
Hydroelectricity Power Plants Practices’, present a picture of the participatory
processes around the establishment and operation of small-scale hydroelectricity
power plants. The authors of the chapter start by exploring the concept of meaningful participation within the framework of environmental justice. Providing
specific references to Turkey’s recent experience of building several small-scale
Hydroelectricity Power Plants (HEPPS), they scrutinise the process, including its
entrenched legal framework. They come up with suggestions to elaborate further on
the concept of meaningful participation by delineating its four components: consideration and inclusion of locals in the policy processes; representation of the
concerns and recommendations of locals in the policy process; the ability of locals
to influence the policy process; the efforts of state institutions and state administration to ensure public participation. On the basis of a qualitative methodology
1 Introduction
5
The third part, ‘Addressing Environmental Struggles in Turkey’, which discusses environment-related challenges, starts with Emel Türker Alpay’s contribution, which focuses on the legal side of the environmental question in Turkey. In
her chapter titled ‘Environmental Cases in Turkey: A Project Experience’, she
analyses environmental cases, discussing the project process, challenges and results
of the EU-funded ‘Turkey’s Map of Environmental Violations’ Project undertaken
by Transparency International Turkey and the Environmental Law Association. She
describes the environment in which this project was run, and the challenges faced
during the Project. She also summarises its results, stressing some important legal
decisions which address the environmental struggle. In her concluding argument,
she indicates that Transparency International Turkey and the Environmental Law
Association have taken the first step towards a more powerful struggle against
environmental conflicts and have increased the number of good examples which
have the potential to increase efforts to safeguard the environment for future
generations.
Sezin İba Gürsoy contributes a chapter on food security in Turkey. She outlines
the capacity of the food supply system in Turkey and uncovers the concerns about
ensuring food security in Turkey, discussing the threats posed by the changing
demographic structure, refugee crises, climate change, increasing land and water
scarcities for food production and food price volatility. In her conclusion, she
suggests that to protect its own food security and to have sustainable agricultural
production, Turkey should institute sustainable land use and product planning,
conserve agricultural biodiversity, support family farming, and utilise effective
agricultural and environmentally compatible methods. Additionally, it should
increase support for rural agricultural development programmes which encourage
environmental protection on agriculture lands. As a result, she argues that to
guarantee future food security Turkey should establish agricultural policies compatible with social and economic policies at macro level.
Under the fourth thematic part, ‘Environmental Justice Movements from
Bottom-up’, R. Caner Sayan and Ayşegül Kibaroğlu, in their chapter ‘Exploring
Environmental Justice: Meaningful Participation and Turkey’s Small-Scale
Hydroelectricity Power Plants Practices’, present a picture of the participatory
processes around the establishment and operation of small-scale hydroelectricity
power plants. The authors of the chapter start by exploring the concept of meaningful participation within the framework of environmental justice. Providing
specific references to Turkey’s recent experience of building several small-scale
Hydroelectricity Power Plants (HEPPS), they scrutinise the process, including its
entrenched legal framework. They come up with suggestions to elaborate further on
the concept of meaningful participation by delineating its four components: consideration and inclusion of locals in the policy processes; representation of the
concerns and recommendations of locals in the policy process; the ability of locals
to influence the policy process; the efforts of state institutions and state administration to ensure public participation. On the basis of a qualitative methodology
1 Introduction
5