Secretary Permanent of Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, based on the article 38 of the Law Nr. 03/L-189 for State Administration of Kosovo, took the decision of establishing a Council for organizing and marking the 22 September as the World Day without vehicles. ATRC is a member of this Council together with other representatives.
A Commission proposal for a pesticide ban on areas set aside for nature protection was discussed at a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels on Monday 18 July, in the presence of Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan. The proposal for Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) is just one of 15 measures the Commission will put forward as part of its CAP simplification drive. At the AGRI Council meeting, the Commission also present Ministers with its analysis of the first year of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) greening implementation process.In July 2016, 16 MEPs called on the European Commission to conduct a major review of the CAP through a Fitness Check. The MEPs’ letter follows calls for a Fitness Check from 115 environmental, social, and health NGOs and a group of leading food experts. The EEB and BirdLife Europe have published a short booklet ‘UnCAP the Truth – Spotlight on EU Farm Policy’.
Together with its Dutch partner Both ENDS, TEMA Foundation is working on a project entitled “Connecting Sustainable Agricultural Networks in EU and Turkey ”, since February, 2016, which funded by EU and Republic of Turkey. The main objectives are establishment of links and cooperation between civil society in Turkey and the EU through a common platform for sustainable agriculture networks, and promotion of good agricultural practices (GAP), organic farming, environmentally friendly agricultural practices in Turkey, in harmony with relevant EU legislations and standards.
In this regard, to consult stakeholders’ perspectives on the content of the platform, a stakeholder meeting was held on July 22nd in Istanbul with the participation of 30 people from various parties. Problems in organic farming and GAP were discussed in an interactive way for the first session of the meeting. Based on those problems discussed, different solutions were suggested in the working groups. As the third session, how to integrate abovementioned solutions into the platform was explored.
This meeting will enable to address much needed issues in the platform thanks to crucial input from the participants. All the participants were quite engaged and ready for contribution during the upcoming steps of the Project
Registrations are now open for the EEB’s Annual Conference that will be organized together with EEB Austrian member Umweltdachverband in Vienna on Monday 26 September 2016. The EEB conference will be one of the first opportunities for those concerned about the environment across Europe to come together and take stock of the developments after the UK referendum on EU membership and its implications for the environment and sustainability. We will debate how the EU needs to now embark on an agenda of transformational change that puts the interests of people and planet first.
Within this framework, the conference will dig deeper into three issues that are high on the agenda this autumn, namely Climate and Energy, Biodiversity and Circular Economy. Confirmed speakers include the Austrian Federal Minister for the Environment Andrä Rupprechter, Ann Mettler, Head of the European Political Strategy Centre at the European Commission and Petros Fassoulas, Secretary General of European Movement International. Check out the full programme and register now on www.eebconference.eu
The Turkish Env.net partner TEMA Foundation was involved in an examination for the planned nuclear power plant in Mersin Akkuyu, with many other environmental organizations and professional chambers on July 11, 2016. The field trip included all the complainant parties (13 national and local organizations and 80 citizens) of the case filed to cancel the positive EIA decision regarding the Nuclear Plant. Parties expressed their concerns about the content EIA report.
TEMA Foundation reminded the public that even if we see no accidents, there will still be negative impacts like land loss, the effects of the cooling water to river and lake habitats along with many other devastating effects on the environment because of the nuclear power plants. Furthermore, the ongoing disaster of Japan Fukushima, which started on 11 March 2011 reveals the extent and scope of the destruction regarding nuclear power plants in cases of accidents. Nuclear waste storage issues have not been solved even with today’s technology. There is no answer to the questions of how and where the nuclear waste can be stored safely. This is an extremely dangerousproblem. During the field visit, volunteers fr om many organisations, including TEMA Foundation, rallied together outside of the construction site.
On July 20, 2016 – only seven months after the Paris Agreement, the European Commission published its proposal for the Effort Sharing Regulation and the rules for accounting the land use, land use change and forestry sector (LULUCF) up to 2030. This proposal is massively important. However instead of living up to the ambition of Paris, the Commission has opted to follow the path of least resistance set by EU member states. According to Roland Joebstl, Climate and Energy Policy Officer at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB): “The Commission has stuck with outdated targets for 2030 and has not included a mechanism to increase ambition in its proposal. Member States are to blame for the outdated targets as they have refused in their negotiations to countenance higher levels of ambition, but the failure to include a ratchet mechanism is the Commission’s own doing.” Furthermore, the proposal creates uncertainty about how the “ratchet mechanism” laid out in Article 14 of the Paris Agreement will be implemented in the EU climate legislation.
NGOs call on all EU Member States as they start their national ratification process to implement the Paris agreement to set down how they will deliver real action in all sectors and go beyond what the Commission has published today. Real climate ambition means fixing Europe’s building stock, switching to clean transportation, transforming Europe’s agriculture and putting energy efficiency first. A clear signal of change will trigger investments and jobs in Europe
NGO Green Home as member of ENV.net in cooperation with NGO Sunce from Croatia, Environment Protection Agency of Montenegro and Public Institution for the Management of Protected Natural Values in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County in Croatia organized five-day training (18 – 22 July) for work in a Geographic Information System (GIS) designed for divers and volunteers who deal with the mapping of species and habitats in the sea.
Usage of GIS technology as a tool, aims to provide efficiently, more economically and modern information management. Among other things, GIS has a wide use and when it comes to the biodiversity research. During the training, participants were acquainted with basics of GIS, its implementation, methods of processing and data entry, as well as how to analyze collected information. In addition to the theoretical part of the training, the participants through practical exercises mastered all the necessary functions of the software, which will enable them to systematically process information and thus provide support for scientific research of areas conducted by the competent institution.
Green Wave, the radio show produced by the Env.netTeam in TEMA Foundation is now sponsored by Env.net for the coming six months. July, 21st was the
9th broadcast of the series.
This week o
ur guest for Green Wave was Prof. Kayıhan Pala from “No to DOSAB Power Plant” Platform and Uludağ University Medical School Public Health Department. The topic for this week’s broadcast was the movement against DOSAB Coal Power Plant in Bursa, Turkey.
The platform that Prof. Pala belongs to was formed after the announcement of the DOSAB Power Plant and has 105 member organizations. As he has completed a comprehensive study on the public health effects of Bursa, Orhaneli Coal Power Plant he led the public awareness campaign that was initiated by the Platform. Emphasizing the drastic public health effects that were revealed through the mentioned study like the correlation between PM 2.5 and occurrence of certain cancer types, he suggested that every project that might have an effect on the public health should be investigated and evaluated in frames of a health impact assessment process.
The podcast of the broadcast in Turkish can be listened at the following link: click here
Milieukontakt, which is the organization being awarded the sub-grant for the development of the project “Coordinated Management of Coastal Waters in Vlora Region”, has started to work with local and regional actors related to planning issues. During these two months they have several meetings with representatives of Vlora Region, the Regional Agency of Protected Areas, and the Regional Basin Agency in Vlora Region to discuss about the project objectives and the activities to be developed toward a formalized cooperation in the region, especially in the coastal areas of Ionian Sea. During these time the project team took care to collect every useful document as reports, strategies and studies for the coastal areas in Vlora Region. In the mean time the project team is working closely with the government bodies that are in charge to manage and monitor coastal areas of Ionian Sea to draft the terms of references for the Memorandum of Understanding in the frame of project objectives.
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. July, 14th was the 8th broadcast of the series.
This week our guest for Green Wave was Prof. Ali Osman Karababa from Ege University. The topic for this week’s broadcast was the effects of nuclear energy on human health following the expert examination trip for the EIA of Akkuyu Nuclear Energy Plant in Mersin, Turkey.
Prof. Karababa emphasized the drastic impacts of exposure to radioactive radiation on public health but also environmental aspect. Given the uncertainties that are involved in a possible accident in nuclear power plants, Prof. Karababa noted that previous experiences of nuclear leaks and accidents were destructive enough and should have taught the humankind an important lesson. The impact of these events on the environment are irreversible and uncompensable. Regardless of any accidents Prof. Karababa expressed that recent studies found that various types of cancer occur more frequently in settlements near nuclear power plants. In addition the effects of exposure to nuclear radiation can also be traced in mutation or alteration in DNAs, which can significantly affect future generations.
The podcast of the broadcast in Turkish can be listened at the following link: Click here
