On the international day of environment, Institute of Environmental Policies (IEP) and Co-PLAN, in the frame of the ENV.net project organized an interactive training for the newly graduated students “On Protection of Environmental Resources through engaging the young professionals”. The activity aimed to increase awareness on environmental protection against climate change, and also increase awareness on renewable energy resources”. The activity was part of the Youth for Energy Policy network.
The activity took place in the premises of Polis University and it was divided in two parts: i) the first part was dedicated to the presentation of the existing situation Hydro Power Plants, production of electrical energy in Albania through these plants and best practices from different EU countries on using RES for production of electrical energy; ii) the second part was more of a workshop, where the participants were divided in groups to analyse the past, present and future situation for energy production in Albania, followed by an action plan.
The event was very fruitful, where several discussions were raised by the youth representatives, where the main points are listed below:
Increase awareness among the youth on using RES for production of electrical energy
Real analysis on the actual need or not for Hydro Power Plants to produce electrical energy
An exchange policy of electrical energy between Albania and Kosovo during the year, based on the amount of energy these countries have in different times of the years. .
Information and analyses for the environmental impact from the alternative resources to produce energy, as the sun or the wind
This activity proved to be more than necessary for the young professionals, by helping their critical thought toward protection of environmental resources and evaluation of potentials for production of electrical energy through using RES.
Green Wave, the radio show produced by the Env.net team in TEMA Foundation is now sponsored by Env.net for the coming six months. June, 23 isthe 5th broadcast of the series.
This week our guests for Green Wave were Dr. Hikmet Öztürk, Head of Forestry and Rural Development Department of TEMA, Dr. Burcu Güngör Cabbar, Deputy Head of Education Department of TEMA and Nevzat Özer, TEMA’s Rize Representative. Our topic for this week’s broadcast was TEMA’s new project “Sustainable Tea Farming for Better Soil”.
This new project aims to introduce good farming practices in tea agriculture, namely diminishing the effects of faulty and harmful activities associated to tea farming. The project consists of 3 phases: introduction of good farming practices, education, and implementation. The first phase of the project is elimination of fertilizers that contain ammonium sulfate, which raises the acidity level of the soil, and carries great importance for sustainable tea agriculture. When the acidity level of the soil increases, the vital microorganisms in the soil cannot function or even survive. The rising level of acidity of the soil also contaminates ground waters. Second phase of the project aims to raise awareness and educate people who are involved in tea farming, whom they refer to as “tea families”. During the implementation phase, stakeholders from civil society, academia and agricultural sector will be encouraged to share their expertise and cooperate to raise awareness for good agricultural practices.
To sum up, while encouraging sustainable farming for better soil, this project also aims to raise awareness to good farming practices.
The podcast of the broadcast in Turkish can be listened at the following link: Click Here
As a follow-up of the “EU Alignment Process and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)“ training and workshop conducted in December 2015, TEMA Foundation published and assessment report, aiming to reveal the problems related to the EIA processes, and to suggest solutions to solve these problems. The first three chapters of the report aims at informing stakeholder participants about the theoretical framework and history of EIA processes in addition to EU EIA legislation and alignment process. In this context, the report starts with short chapters on the theoretical and legal background of the EIA processes by three experts.
Dr. Begüm Özkaynak, from Boğaziçi University provides insights on why and how the EIA reports are needed. Prof. Dr. Özkaynak’s conclusion is that it is crucially important for social and ecological impacts of the projects to be integrated in the EIA process; broad stakeholder involvement would make the project ecologically more feasible.
Richard Filcak from European Environmental Bureau (EEB) examines the application of the EIA legislation in the EU. Filcak emphasizes the importance of quality control for an efficient EIA process, namely vague and general statements on the topic should be avoided in the report. Filcak also pointed out the absence of public participation in the EIA process and the need for a revision in the public feedback article of the legislation.
TEMA Foundation’s legal consultant, Ömer Aykul, writes about the legal framework of EIA processes and their implementations, which are often problematic in Turkey. Aykul argues that the EIA processes have not made significant progress since their introduction; however both the public and legal professionals gained experience and knowledge about the 14 process throughout the years. He suggests development of a new system for spatial plans and EIA processes to be executed jointly. Also Mr. Aykul also emphasizes the absence of public participation in the process and he underlined the importance of the need of Turkey officially signing the Aarhus Convention in this context.
The second part of the report summarizes the results of the group activity organised during the workshop, where the participants were asked to comment on the theoretical framework, develop possible solutions and share their experiences regarding EIA processes. The first group activity was to identify participants’ common problems and categorize them, the identified final categories were: public participation, content, legal processes and monitoring and control. For the second group activity, the participants were asked to come up with a possible solution for one of the identified problems.
Lastly, the report presents TEMA Foundation’s Opinion and Suggestions regarding the EIA processes, which mostly apply to investment in energy, petroleum and mining sectors, which have substantial impacts on environment and public health. TEMA’s suggestions can be summarised as follows:
EIA legislation has not made progress since its implementation in 1993; the legislation and the process need to be revised and improved especially in the following main areas: participation, time frames, monitoring/control and scope.
Participation, especially in developed countries, enables the parties to identify and solve possible problems in the initial phase, which is both ecologically and economically beneficial for stakeholders. In addition, Turkey has not signed the Aarhus Convention (Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters), which is a significant drawback regarding the legislation on participation.
The changes in the legislation regarding time-frames aim to shorten the given time for feedbacks, which makes it extremely 15 hard to provide a comprehensive reflection on EIA reports. These shortened assessment process may seem like an advantage from the investors’ side because according to the new time-frames, the EIA process are much shorter than the former EIA process. However shortened EIA hinder the process to run steadily. The competent authority can need much more time to evaluate the process.
Designated screening criteria for the process should also include the following impacts of the projects: physical/socio-economic, direct/indirect, long/short term, qualitative/quantitative and cumulative. Cumulative assessment carries vital importance for EIA processes, namely the cumulative assessment should evaluate the project to be implemented in relation with the existing and planned projects in the area. The notion of evaluation of alternatives is not included in the EIA process; no-action alternative (also known as zero alternative), as an alternative should also be included in the legislation.
The aforementioned alterations to the legislation will result in more effective implementation processes. In this context, it is important to mention that the EIA processes are executed by institutions that are funded by the investor companies, which makes the process a financial transaction, and to be perceived as a routine procedure. The EIA process should be grounded on the notion of public interest not on financial interest of institutions. Therefore EIA authorized institutions should be economically independent from the investors, as a matter of fact the authorizations should be given to individuals not institutions as it is in the EU.
All in all, in addition to the aforementioned improvements, it is important to note that the EIA process is not a land use decision making process. Land use decisions for projects which are likely to have significant effects on environment, should be developed at regional level by spatial planning process. If the location would merely be determined through the EIA process, without 16 developing the necessary decisions within a higher scale of spatial planning, none of the suggested improvements to the legislation alone would be suffice to solve the existing problems. EIA is implemented at project level, whereas spatial planning is a decision making process for different types of land use.
The local volunteers of the Turkish Env.net partner TEMA Foundation organised a series of events to raise awareness about the protection of the environment, as part of the 2016 World Environment Day. The volunteers collectively created unique hand-made banners with the tagline “Sürdürülebilir Yaşam için Doğanın Parçası Ol” (Be part of the Nature, for a Sustainable Future) and put the banners on display in central places of their towns.
A total of 33 events were organised in 17 cities in all over the country and around 3000 people of different age groups ranging from children to retired elderlies, were reached directly with these activities. Furthermore, a specific graphic design commissioned by TEMA Foundation was shared extensively in the social media and received a lot of attention about the world environment day. 340,089 people were reached on facebook, with 2654 shares and 5427 likes. And 287 retweets and 303 likes on twitter were reached.
In order to mark 05th June World Environment Day, there were several activities organized. The activities were mainly organized in Germia Park in Prishtina, in cooperation betwwen ATRC with the Prishtina Municiplity, NGO Mileniumi i Ri, NGO Green Art as well as other NGOs. Main activities were:
Promotion of art through recycled materials; distribution of brochures for Germia Park; promotion cycling as environmental friendly mean; lectures for children on the recycling process and energy efficiency; health promotion as well as information on environmental protection for the participants in the Park
On the occasion of World Environment Day 2016 Macedonia in collaboration with the department of environment and directors of the three primary schools – Marshal Tito, Sando Masev,and Vidoe Podgorec and high school Jane Sandanski today joined the action that took place in small city park, organised by the environmental organisations “Planetum” and “4x4x4 Balkan Bridges “Skopje – ENV.net partner for Macedonia.
Students and other participants in the action – participated to a creative workshop with main topic of protecting environment and fighting climate change.
Students using different techniques (graphics, painting, dry pastel and drawing canvas bags) in a creative way, has expressed and sent their message for protection of live environment and climate change. Fifty students participated and made around thirty paintings, and twenty two canvas bags. Many random people walking try the park has the opportunity to see the paintings and read the messages that students sent. This way in a creative way we were able to send the message to the local community and wider to preserve our planet because we don’t have a spare one, and to contribute to the environmental protection and climate change fitting
The action is part of the project “Development of the ENV.net in West Balkans and Turkey: giving citizens a voice to influence the environmental process reforms for closer EU integration”, supported by the European Commission.
On 11th June 2016 in Skopje, the ENV.net team from Macedonia, with support of EEB, organised a one-day training on Strategic environment assessment (SEA), Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and Public Participation.
The main objective of the course was to provide a general understanding on EU acquis (pertaining to SEA, EIA and Public Participation), and a possibility for Macedonian CSO to be better informed with SEA/EIA EU policies and practices, compared to those in Macedonia. It also aimed to provide a forum for discussions how they can contribute to the national and EU policy making.
At the course attended 22 participant, representatives of CSOs, local and national governments, university professors, and environmental activists. Key presenters included Richard Filcak (EEB), Kiril Ristovski (Florozon), Natasha Dokovska (Journalist for Human Rights), Nevena Smilevska (Eco-Svest – ETNAR for MK) and Gjoko Zoroski ( DEM-ETNAR for MK from Ohrid) & Nenad Kocik ( Vila Zora Veles)
The presentations delivered at the training, covering varieties of topics like EIA& SEA in the EU: Situation, Challenges and NGO Perspectives; Legal provisions, mechanisms and opportunities for access to information on environmental issues and public participation in decision-making; Aarhus Convention as a benchmark for environmental good governance; the cases of NP Mavrovo (Bern Convention as a tool for protection of the National Park Mavrovo) and NP Galicica (How to preserve nature?; Amended Management Plan of the National Park Galicica, and the endangered species by the projects), the cases of Veles (Citizens’ protests against the reopening of the smelter in Veles), and Probishtip (Government intention to allow construction of an iron foundry and iron products in Probistip), triggered very dynamic and fruitful discussions among the participants, which resulted in a common conclusion that in order to be more effective we need to join forces in order to strengthen our role on both national and local level.
Green Wave, the radio show produced by the Env.net team in TEMA Foundation is now sponsored by Env.net for the coming six months. June 16th is the 4th broadcast of the series.
This week our guest for Green Wave was Biologist Ergün Bacak, who is an instructor from İstanbul University Faculty of Forests, Forestry Junior Technical College, Hunting and Wildlife Program. We have talked about the 2016-2017 Hunting Period decision of the Central Hunting Commission.
The hunting period which was published in the official gazette on 26 May 2016 legitimizes hunting in regions that were previously closed for hunting including many natural regions and almost all wetlands. In addition, hunting limits have been raised. The only type of goose that is found in Turkey and shoveler, a rare type of duck are included in the list of animals that can be hunted.
Please click on the link to support the campaign to change this Central Hunting Commission decision.
Green Wave, the radio show produced by the Env.net team in TEMA Foundation is now sponsored by Env.net for the coming six months. June, 2 is the second broadcast of the series.
This week our guest for Green Wave was Dr. Cemal Beşkardeş of Bosphorus Associations’ Platform (BODEP). BODEP is a platform that consists of 11 neighborhood associations, which collectively work on protecting these neighborhoods as cultural and natural entities.
Dr. Beşkardeş talked about their new campaign “We want our boats” to increase the number of ferry trips in the city lines as a solution to traffic jams in Istanbul. There are docks in every neighborhood in the Bosphorus area but the options to use sea transport remain rather limited. In this sense BODEP argues that introduction of a variety of new ferry routes will have great impact on traffic jam reduction. BODEP also initiated a change.org campaign to attract attention to their campaign and the platform.
The podcast of the broadcast in Turkish can be listened at the following link:
Green Wave, the radio show produced by the Env.net team in TEMA Foundation is now sponsored by Env.net for the coming six months. The first Env.net supported show was broadcasted on 26th of May.
In reference to May 22, International Day of Biological Diversity, this broadcast was dedicated to discuss the importance of biodiversity. Esra Ergin, TEMA’s Education, Science and Publications Coordinator and Aydan Özkıl of Nature Protection Center (DKM), Soil and Water Program were our two guests for the broadcast. TEMA’s Esra Ergin gave insights about how individuals can get involved in the protection of biodiversity and why people actually need to be involved in this process.
DKM’s Aydan Özkıl informed the audience about DKM’s new project Artists for Nature, which is a project co-funded by European Union and Republic of Turkey under the Civil Society Dialogue Programme. The project aims to introduce the “wildlife art” concept to Turkish art enthusiasts, with guidance of experienced British artists, known as Society of Wildlife Artists.
In the context of the project, an Art Week is organized in Köyceğiz (Muğla) Area, where endemic Sweetgum Trees naturally grows in forest form, with participation of British Tutors, Turkish Artists, art students and representatives of National Media. Following the Art Week, produced artwork will be exhibited in touristic locations throughout 2016 summer. In addition to the exhibitions in Turkey, the outcomes will be also exhibited in Britain in Autumn, 2016. Finally a book and a calendar will be prepared, summarizing the whole art week and the process. The project aims to raise public awareness about the endemic Sweetgum Trees and encourage protection of these endemic species.
The podcast of the broadcast in Turkish can be listened at the following link:
This new project aims to introduce good farming practices in tea agriculture, namely diminishing the effects of faulty and harmful activities associated to tea farming. The project consists of 3 phases: introduction of good farming practices, education, and implementation. The first phase of the project is elimination of fertilizers that contain ammonium sulfate, which raises the acidity level of the soil, and carries great importance for sustainable tea agriculture. When the acidity level of the soil increases, the vital microorganisms in the soil cannot function or even survive. The rising level of acidity of the soil also contaminates ground waters. Second phase of the project aims to raise awareness and educate people who are involved in tea farming, whom they refer to as “tea families”. During the implementation phase, stakeholders from civil society, academia and agricultural sector will be encouraged to share their expertise and cooperate to raise awareness for good agricultural practices.
The second part of the report summarizes the results of the group activity organised during the workshop, where the participants were asked to comment on the theoretical framework, develop possible solutions and share their experiences regarding EIA processes. The first group activity was to identify participants’ common problems and categorize them, the identified final categories were: public participation, content, legal processes and monitoring and control. For the second group activity, the participants were asked to come up with a possible solution for one of the identified problems.
