On 22nd of September, ATRC together with Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, Municipality of Prishtina and Kosovo Police gathered in front of Ministry of Environment to mark “International Day Without Vehicles”. Around 50 volunteers joined in marking this day together with some primary school children. After the speech, people that participated in the event took a ride with bicycles provided by the Ministry throughout the city. Participants wore t-shirts with the days message and volunteers put some messages in the trees on the main streets of the city. This event was followed by local media as well.
On 22.09.2016, at the square “Goce Delchev” in Strumica was organised the final event of the project “Local campaign against climate change” implemented by Planetum,f Strumica, supported within the call of ENV.net Macedonia 2016 sub-granting scheme “Active Citizens for Greener Future ”
The event was organised by Planetum, Strumica, in cooperation with the Macedonian ENV.net team.
The event included several activities: bicycle parade through the boulevard of Strumica, a march to raise awareness among citizens about the negative impact of climate change and promotion of the comic “The Climate Is Not Wired on a Switch.”
The gathering was addressed by the President of the Council of the Municipality of Strumica, the representative of Cycling Club “Activ” from Strumica, Mr. Dusko Hristov, representative of ENV.net Macedonia and representatives of the Youth Council, who promoted the comic book “The Climate Is Not Wired on a Switch.”
The event was concluded with the awarding of prizes and public recognition of the participants in the campaign “The Climate Is Not Wired on a Switch”
On 15-16 September, a two-day Conference on IPA 2 mechanism for CSOs was held in Skopje. The conference was part of the “IPA 2 mechanism for CSOs” project, funded by the European Union within the IPA program for supporting civil society and the media.
At the opening session Mr. Nicolas Bartolini, representing the European Union Delegation in Macedonia addressed the participants. The aim of the conference was to provide forum for representatives of the civil society organisations and representatives of the Government and the EU Delegation to discuss current issues affecting the operation of civil society organisations in Macedonia.
During the conference was presented the approach to sectoral cooperation in each of the IPA2 sectors (1) Democracy and Governance, (2) Rule of law and fundamental rights, (3) Environment (4) Transport / Energy (5) Competitiveness and innovation (6) Social development, (7) Agriculture and Rural development, and the constituted new sector (8) Regional and territorial cooperation. During the conference sectoral representatives of the IPA 2 mechanism were nominated and selected.
Representatives of the ENV.net team in Macedonia used the meeting to promote the work of ENV.net. They also actively participated in the work of sectoral groups 3 (Environment) and 1 (Democracy and Governance).
On 14.09.2016, the Minister of Environment and Physical Planning, Mr. Bashkim Ameti held a meeting with representatives of civil society organisations that work on environmental issues. The aim of the event was for the new Minister to meet the organisations active in the field of environment and to hear more about their projects and initiatives related to environmental protection. This was a good opportunity for the Macedonian ENV.net team to present the project and the results that ENV.net has achieved during its implementation.
On 20 August 2016, the Turkish parliament passed Law No. 6745 which is a “bag law” covering many issues related to investments. Article 80 of the law has raised serious concern among the public and is specifically protested by many environmentalists. This article will potentially lead to exemptions from licences, permissions and appropriations to projects deemed as strategic investments. Environmental NGOs are concerned that Article 80 will ease up the process of Environmental Impact Assessment.
This new Article aims to speed up the assessment processes that large scale and strategic investments go through, limits the parliament’s responsibilities and lets the cabinet take over the parliament’s responsibilities and power over the approval process. Furthermore, the article authorizes the cabinet to eliminate assesment processes when necessary.
The article includes incentives that cover reduction or even elimination of payment of income tax, and customs tax, also reduction or elimination of interests for investment credits and grants for staff wages.
All of the above mentioned issues in the newly introduced Article 80 in Act No. 6745 raise concerns about the negative impact of new investments to the environmental assessment processes and elimination of necessary authorizations with the consent of the cabinet.
Env.net Team in TEMA Foundation closely observes and monitors the updates regarding this new law with concerns.
On 19 September 2016, Turkey’s largest environmental trial, which has 751 real and legal entities including TEMA Foundation as complainants and 61 lawyers representing them, was held in Rize Administrative Court.
To give a brief introduction about the lawsuit: the struggle in Artvin started in early 90s when gold was first discovered in the area. Due to the geographical uniqueness of the area and the reported effects of any type of mining in the area, the local people protested against gold mining activities, and they supported their struggle with scientific evidence revealing the drastic destruction of any kind of mining activity would have on the area. Artvin Cerattepe is located in a National Park, which is a registered national natural protection area; the area is also internationally protected in framework of Rio, CITES and Bern Agreements. Artvin is home to protected fauna and flora types with 1400 plant species including 125 endemic and 77 rare plants species.
The trial on 19th September was on the annulment of the positive EIA report and the complainants’ lawyers ordered a stay of execution. During the trial the lawyers of the complainants presented numerous arguments on the irreversible destruction that the planned mining activities would cause, provided scientific evidence for these arguments. The trial ended unresolved because the complainants’ lawyers challenged the impartiality of the panel of judges. The decision for this challenge is still pending.
Green Wave, the radio show produced by the Env.net Team in TEMA Foundation is sponsored by Env.net for the coming two months. September 15th was the 17th broadcast of the series.
This week on Green Wave we talked about WWF Turkey’s newly implemented Kaş-Kekova Sustainable Tourism Project. Our guest, Yaprak Arda, WWF Turkey Nature Protection Specialist, also talked about WWF Turkey’s sub grant on the subject; we also talked to one of the sub grantees Munise Ozan, Head of Kaş Tourism and Publicity Foundation, which implemented a project about nature friendly tourism.
For more information on the project, check out WWF-Turkey’s website (Turkish).
To listen to this week’s broadcast, click on the link.
Green Wave, the radio show produced by the Env.net Team in TEMA Foundation is sponsored by Env.net for the coming two months. September 22nd was the 18th broadcast of the series.
This week on Green Wave we talked about the “Adım Adım Initiative” and TEMA’s own “Fellowship of the Trees” Project. Adım Adım is a volunteer-based social initiative in Turkey that promotes charitable giving through sponsorship for sports like running, cycling, swimming and trekking. Formed in 2007 Adım Adım is Turkey’s first charity running group and as of 2011 it was the largest amateur running group in the country.[1] Emel gave a brief introduction on the Adım Adım Initiative and explained the logic behind it.
On November 13th, TEMA as a part of the Adım Adım Initiative will run the Eurasia Marathon to raise funds for the Fellowship of the Trees project, which is a ecological education programme initiated by TEMA’s Education Department.
For more information on Adım Adım, please visit their website (Turkish).
For more information on the Fellowship of the Trees Project click on the link (Turkish).
This week our broadcast was about the newly formed sinkhole in Konya Karapınar and our guests were Assoc. Prof. Fetullah Arık from the Chamber of Geology Engineers’ and Assoc. Prof. Erhan Akça from TEMA’s Science Committee. Prof. Arık stated that although sinkholes are naturally occurring phenomena, the formation of sinkholes in residence areas is potentially dangerous for human life as well as agricultural activities. Prof. Arık also explained the reasons for sinkholes’ formation: over irrigation of agricultural areas causes decrease in groundwater levels. Prof. Akça, who joined the broadcast later, explained how changing the chosen crop patterns could decrease or even prevent formation of new sinkholes and limit the decrease of groundwater levels. By choosing hydrophobic plants to grow in this area, groundwater levels can be maintained, while preventing formation of sinkholes.
On September 7th Env.Net Team Turkey organized a seminar on coal investments in Turkey and related human rights infringements for TEMA’s employees. The presented study was conducted by the Earth Association, which works on issues like climate change, ecological production and eco-villages on a voluntary basis and is formed by academicians and ecological activists. For further information please check out their website from the link.
The results of the ethnography which was pursued in 2015 were presented during the seminar and they indicated that coal investments violate most of the human rights that are protected by international law and the UN Charter (UDHR). Dr. Akif Pamuk, who is the coordinator of this study, explained how local people show signs of learned helplessness and tried to explain their lack of resistance to coal investments in frames of this phenomenon. In this sense, he emphasized that approaches that are designed for local people’s needs are required to encourage resistance and build capacity for understanding the impact of coal investments to issues of health, human rights, climate change and others.
