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The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972 both triggered the organization of environmental management in many countries and brought about the formation of an understanding of environmental protection on a national and international scale. Similarly, the Conference has been a starting point in terms of institutionalizing environmental management, creating legislation, and developing environmental policy practice in Turkey. When the institutional structure is examined, a process comes to the fore in which the central government is the main actor in terms of institutional, legal, and representation. Parallel to this, when the environmental protection perspective of the environmental management organization in question is considered, an understanding that prioritizes economic development draws attention. The main argument of this paper is that environmental management has a institutionally centralized, practically developmentalist nature that displays a continuity. In order to illuminate the centralist and developmentalist continuity, this process which started in 1973, is handled over a period of 50 years and changes in the institutional structure of environmental management are discussed. Afterwards, the legal sources that support environmental policies and the institutional structures are discussed, and their positioning on the axis of protection-development is debated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stakeholders' views and opinions are important in the process of developing the environmental policy in the businesses. Depending on the developments that have taken place, environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) have become one of the important stakeholders of the businesses and have begun to have a say in environmental practices and environmental policies of them. Examining the relationship and interaction between these organizations and the accommodation establishments are important for new start-ups in terms of developing environmental policies. In this study, the effects of environmental nongovernmental organizations on environmental policies of chain hotels were investigated. The data were gathered by implementing a face-to-face questionnaire to the middle and senior managers of 156 chain hotels operating in Turkey. Ordinal logistic regression was used for the analysis of the data and 4 models were designed for this purpose. Findings of the research indicate that the relationship and interaction of chain hotels with ENGOs play an important role on environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental civil society is situated within a globalizing civil society. In fact, environmental issues have always been global, crossing borders and making cooperation among various actors indispensable in efforts of environmental protection and conservation. Environmental regimes are manifestations of such efforts and one of the most controversial questions surrounding environmental regimes is the question of effectiveness. After considering the expanding roles environmental organizations play in global civil society, the article delves into the question of effectiveness of environmental regimes, particularly in the case of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) and the Barcelona Convention. More specifically, the role environmental organizations play in the implementation of the MAP in the context of Turkey is analyzed. It is concluded that the ineffectiveness of the MAP is related to the limited impact environmental NGOs have and that the capacity of environmental organizations to be effective actors in environmental regimes depends on the nature of their relations with other actors such as states and international and supranational organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) and its protocols aim to tackle transboundary air pollution problems. LRTAP is the first binding international environmental regime and forerunner of other environmental regimes. It aims to solve regional air pollution problems through scientific collaboration and deliberation within the framework of détente and rising environmental movements. Started as a weak regime, LRTAP became a stronger regime with the addition of new protocols. At the beginning LRTAP focused on sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions and later incorporated volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, eutrophication and ground level ozone pollution into its agenda and contributed to substantial cuts in emissions. Having signed the LRTAP and its first protocol concerning the financing of EMEP, Turkey hasn't been a party to other protocols without binding itself for cuts in emissions. Although a legal and institutional framework for air pollution control was introduced, Turkey lacks a comprehensive monitoring system and suffers from rising air pollution levels. Turkey's efforts towards harmonising its environmental legislation as a part of its EU membership process do not produce tangible results given the problems of implementation and discrepancies between the limit values and long transition periods. Prevailing developmentalist discourse that prioritises economic development over environmental concerns contributes to postponement of sound pollution control efforts until Turkey becomes a full member. Yet again rising pollution levels reminds us that Turkey should take LRTAP and its protocols into account to solve those problems left unattended for quite some time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]