Issue: 39
Development projects, despite their bureaucratic and long names, generally target poor people and the unemployed. These sorts of projects is generally managed by professional organizations. However, beneficiaries of the Small Investments Fund (SIF), created by UNDP and the Baku Tiblisi Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline Company Environmental Investment Programme, are not professional project managers. In fact, farmers, retired teachers, civil servants, and young people who live on the route of Baku Tiblisi Ceyhan pipeline create and implement development projects. In the context of Small Investments Fund, project management capacities of local people are improved and the needs of poor people and those who depend on natural resources are met with environment-friendly new alternatives. Experience sharing meeting held in February as part of the Second Phase of the SIF Project showed that the project contributed to corporate capacity development, local communities’ capacity enhancement and created employment for local communities.
Starting their speeches with the sentence “I am here to give a speech, for I am a farmer”, many farmers, who received technical and financial support through the SIF project, related their success stories. The establishment of the first large-scale biogas reactor, production of medical aromatic plants and their use as a source of revenue for women villagers, improvements in local diet habits, production of local seeds which were once neglected, eco-tourism activities, that received international recognition, to conserve a prominent wetland area and the fact that all of these were accomplished by local people are just some of the achievements of the project…So far 3,000 people have benefitted directly or indirectly from the projects carried out in 11 residential areas. The projects in the scope of SIF not only conserved the unique natural resources in places where the projects were implemented but also succeeded to draw the attention of international organizations, Turkish government, national and international media on local solutions. The projects can also be a model to be replicated in other regions.
At the experience sharing meeting held in February at the General Directorate of Forestry in Ankara, the organizations, which benefitted from the SIF project, made a presentation. (Please click the following links to access the presentations: “Development of Eco-tourism in Yoğunoluk Village of Samandağ District, Hatay Province”, “Boğatepe Village Sustainability and Life with Plants”, “Production of Bio-gas and Bio-mass from Systematically Collected Cattle Manure”, “Development of Eco-tourism Possibilities in Kuyucuk Lake”, “Centre for Promoting the Yumurtalik Lagoons”)
In his presentation, Associate Professor Bülent Gülçubuk from Ankara University, Turkey examined the results of projects (please click here to access the presentation). Following the discussions about capacity development in development projects and how projects contributed to behavior change, workshops were held on the contribution of projects to UN Millenium Development Goals.
For more information on the First Phase of BTC Environmental Investment Programme SIF Project, please click here.
For more information on the Second Phase of BTC Environmental Investment Programme SIF Project, please click here.
You can visit the web site of the project: http://www.kyfnet.org/ (Turkish)
The project, funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), directly executed by UNDP as the implementing agency with the technical expertise of Ankara branch of the Association for Supporting and Training Women Candidates (KA-DER), aims to build capacities of women politicians and activists and promote their engagement and leadership into policy-making processes.
Through increasing women’s participation in local decision making, gender equality in every sphere of life in Turkey is promoted. At the local level the major partners of the project are Women’s Coalition and the Local Agenda 21 (LA-21) Women and Youth Councils. Men and women representatives of political parties' provincial presidencies, youth and culture houses, women candidates, members of women council, women activists and associations representing the women’s coalition participated in the workshops for the common goal of increased women’s participation in local politics.
At the workshops, the neccesity of women-friendly local administrations and how to make this happen were discussed. The international agreements and legal arrangements that can be the base of people’s demands were also pointed out. The workshops were also an investment for the future representatives of the local administrations for a comprehensive understanding of gender-sensitive policies at the local level based on the unique needs of every community.
The set of workhops was finalized in Şanlıurfa followed by those in Adana, Eskişehir, İzmir and Trabzon. Since the beginning of the project, particular emphasis had been placed on encouraging young women’s participation. National Youth Parliament, one of the partners of the project, carries out a campaign “I want to be Elected”, which is supported by UNDP Turkey Office, so as to encourage participation of young people in politics. UNDP’s workshops implemented simultaneously with “I want to be Elected” campaign are significant in consideration of the upcoming local elections in Turkey in March 2009.
Throughout the workshops, the women’s rights activists, youth and women civic platforms had the chance to learn about elections campaigns in Turkey which focus on gender equality. At the time of the workshops, political parties’ candidacy deadlines for the local elections have not elapsed yet, thus, these set of workshops have contributed to encourage women’s participation to become candidates and to empower women candidates within their political parties.
[BAGLANTILAR]
One-third of Turkey’s surface area consists of forests. Despite this, only 6% of total forest areas are protected. Thus, there is a need to increase number and coverage of protected forest areas in Turkey. In 2008, UNDP Turkey, Ministry of Environment and Forestry and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Turkey launched the “Enhancing Forest Protected Areas’ Management in Turkey" project to conserve forests and increase protected forest areas.The project focuses on sustainable use of natural resources in protected area buffer zones and minimising threats for protected areas. Osman Öztürk is the Deputy Director General of General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks and the coordinator of the project. In his interview with New Horizons, Osman Öztürk gave information about the project:
Osman Öztürk (O.Ö.): One-third of Turkey’s surface area consists of forests, despite this, only 6% of total forest areas is protected. Nature conservation efforts in Turkey need to focus especially on sustainable natural resources management and minimise threats for the protected area. Participatory management planning processes for protected areas will increase the ownership of all range of stakeholders and partners in the implementation of activities. These activities should be disseminated in the protected area system of Turkey. Our project will enable us to create an examplary system in Kastamonu-Bartın Küre Mountains National Park in the above stated subjects and this model will be disseminated to other forest hotspots in Turkey.
UNDP Turkey: Could you please briefly tell us about “Enhancing Forest Protected Areas’ Management in Turkey" project?
“Enhancing Forest Protected Areas’ Management in Turkey" project is financed by GEF (Global Environment Facility). It is implemented by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Enviroment and Forestry (MoEF) General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks (DKMP) and General Directorate of Forestry (OGM) and UNDP Turkey; with the support of WWF Turkey, General Directorate of Afforestation and Erosion Control (AGM), and General Directorate for Forest-Village Relations (ORKÖY).
The project aims to enhance nature conservation and sustainable natural resource management in Kastamonu-Bartın Küre Mountains National Parks and its buffer zone; create a participatory, effective and comprehensive management model; upon this experience, the proposed actions will be disseminated to other 8 forest hotspots in Turkey, which are:
UNDP Turkey: What are the main features of the project?
O.Ö.: In general, our project:
A. is a medium size project financed by GEF and implemented in close collaboration with WWF Turkey.
B. is the first of its kind in Turkey in sense of the planning process which includes both the protected area and its buffer zone. During the project implementation, extra effort will be given to develop alternative income generation activites for the local communities. As a result, Küre Mountains National Park will be a model site for Turkey.
UNDP Turkey: What is the duration of the project and what are its outcomes?
O.Ö.: The project started in 28 May 2008 and will be finalised in 3 years. The project aims the following main outputs:
Outcome 1. Cost-effective conservation management approaches for protected forest areas will be designed and implemented in Kastamonu-Bartın Küre Mountains National Park.
To reach this outcome, DKMP will empower the national park management system, national park management plan will be finalised and implemented in a participatory way, a sustainable tourism development plan for national park and its buffer zone will be prepared.
Outcome 2. Sustainable natural resource management approaches are enhanced in protected area buffer zones.
Sustainable management plans for the natural resources forest areas will be prepared and implemented in a participatory way. OGM will prepare and implement biodiversity integrated multi functional (sustainable) forest management plans for the forest areas in the buffer zone. AGM will prepare model programmes about erosion control and ecosystem rehabilitation.
WWF-Turkey will organise capacity development trainings for local NGOs. Effective use of natural resources and sustainable development activities will be encouraged, and credit support will be provided by ORKÖY for forest villagers in order to realize alternative income generation activities.
Outcome 3. Lessons learned from Küre Mountains National Park will be disseminated to the other forest hotspots in Turkey, contributing to the maturation of the Protected Areas system of Turkey.
Experience obtained from Küre Mountains National Park regarding co-management of protected area and its buffer zone, prevention of threats, new approaches in protected area planning and management will be disseminated to the above mentioned forest hotspots.
UNDP Turkey: Could you please inform us on your General Directorate’s efforts for the protection of Turkey’s biodiversity and nature?
O.Ö.: The main organization responsible for the protection of Turkey’s biodiversity and nature is General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks (DKMP). Our General Directorate protects natural values of international and national importance under the policy framework determined by international conventions, agreements and national legislations.
Turkey’s archeological, historical, cultural and natural characteristics and biodiversity-rich areas have been under protection of different organizations with different status. Currently, there are 16 different protection status in Turkey. Some of these status are determined and declared under national legislation, and some under international conventions, agreements.
Here is the list of protected areas under the responsibility of our General Directorate:
|
Protected Area Type |
Number |
Related Law |
|
National Park |
40 |
Law on National Parks |
|
Strict Nature Reserve |
31 |
Law on National Parks |
|
Nature Monument |
105 |
Law on National Parks |
|
Nature Park |
30 |
Law on National Parks |
|
Wildlife Reserve |
80 |
Law on Land Hunting |
|
Ramsar Site |
12 |
Ramsar Convention/ Regulation on Wetland Protection |
|
Biosphere Reserve |
1 |
Regulation is under preparation |
All regulations for land hunting are developed and implemented by our General Directorate. Through international projects, DKMP ensures effective participation of local people in protected areas and supports the creation of alternative income sources like ecotourism and local guide system in protected area. Also, we carry out research activities specific to cave ecosystems.
UNDP Turkey: How will the project contribute to nature conservation efforts of Turkey?
O.Ö.: Let me state that protected areas are very significant in the sense that by protecting the biodiversity, they conserve important ecosystems, water basins and soil. Also, many protected areas are vital for local people living in and around the protected areas and utilizing natural resources since local communities shape the landscape and are shaped by the geography. This presents an additional cultural value to the protected areas.
The project will support conservation work in Turkey by:
- Ensuring more participation in protected area planning and management
- Establishing buffer zone planning and management mechanisms
- Empowering local management of national parks
- Establishing effective visitor management mechanism
- Developing and implementing volunteer programmes for national parks
- Establishing national park management monitoring system
- Creating an infrastructure of alternative income generation activities for local people
- Developing and implementing sustainable forest management plans in consideration of biodiversity values of the region
- Disseminating experiences obtained from Küre Mountains National Park and its buffer to the other 8 forest hotspots.
UNDP Turkey: Could you please tell us about your collaboration with UNDP in project development and implementation phases?
O.Ö.: The project was developed in close collaboration with UNDP and other project partners such as WWF. The project was finalized in 2007 and it was approved in 2008 by GEF Secretariat. As I mentioned before, the project is implemented by UNDP Turkey, and executed by General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks, and General Directorate of Forestry. Effective and result-driven partnerships were formed already. I hope that co-working experience and culture at the end of this project will continue in other areas of collaboration as well.
UNDP Turkey: Is there anything else you would like to add?
O.Ö.: Firstly, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to share our views. Turkey is rich in biodiversity values due to its location in the junction of three main continents. But, we are not much aware of this richness hence awareness raising is critical to ensure ownership at the local and decision making level. The right solutions should also be integrated into national staregic planning and budgeting to ensure sustainability in the long run. I believe that through this project, the right alternative models will be developed and implemented in other hotspots of Turkey. Naturally, close and strong collaboration among the project partners is also important to achieve the desired success. Through this interview, I would like to congratulate all the experts and responsible colleagues in our project team and wish them good luck.
Interview by Yıldıray Lise for New Horizons
[BAGLANTILAR]
The objective of these sessions is to have a pool of resource people in Turkey about victim-offender mediation in criminal justice. Realized by an interactive approach and role plays facilitated by professional experienced mediators, trainings enabled vivid discussions on the possible challenges and advantages of victim-offender mediation practice in the context of Turkey.
These sessions represent the continuum of a process that commenced in March 2008 by a perception and needs assessment on victim-offender mediation followed by a two-day-workshop in June 2008 where the findings of the assessment were discussed and a two-day working group meeting in October 2008 where the topics for the training of trainers sessions were identified.
Upon the completion of this process, training manuals were developed by the international and national consultants in consultation with the relevant unit of the Ministry of Justice, namely the General Directorate of Criminal Affairs. The training manuals include UN Basic Principles on the Use of Restorative Justice Programmes in Criminal Matters, Recommendation N.R (99) 19 of Council of Europe on Mediation in Panel Matters, Strategies for the Promotion of Use of Victim-Offender Mediation, Code of Conduct recommended by the Association of Victim-Offender, existing legislation of Turkey on mediation, preconditions of successful mediation and successful mediation practices.
Attended by the judicial actors, who are the main authorities promoting victim-offender mediation practices in their respective courthouses, the sessions also provided important inputs for the project as the practice related challenges were also debated extensively. In the course of the project, a website will be created, a handbook for the practitioners will be developed and awareness-raising activities will be carried out in big courthouses.
Regarding the practice of mediation in criminal justice systems, New Horizons spoke with three experts: Prof. Dr. Cumhur Şahin (Deputy Rector, Gazi University, Turkey), Michael Konigshofer (Expert Mediator, Austria) and Alenka Meznar (Former Supreme State Prosecutor, Slovenia).
UNDP Turkey: What is mediation? How is it practised in criminal justice systems?
Prof. Dr. Cumhur Şahin (C.Ş.): Mediation is a process of finalising a criminal matter by placing an emphasis on the wills of a victim and an offender who are parties of a criminal matter. In other words, the will of parties does not have any significance in our legal system. When there is a criminal matter, the state takes an action, prosecutor carries out an investigation, brings a lawsuit, then a court tries. If a person is found guilty, he/she is punished and executed; if not, he/she is acquitted. Neither a victim nor an offender initiates anything. They are just part of a process. This is a time-consuming and costly system. When we try to deal with all criminal matters through this system, no country can sustain it. In societies where there is a lot of criminal matter, this blocks a justice system.
Therefore, alternative ways have been developed to resolve conflicts. These alternative approaches firstly started in Anglo-American countries and then to a certain degree have influenced continental European countries and were integrated into their relevant legislations. Because of the fact that the classical system is too slow and cannot provide expected benefits, other approaches have been sought, and mediation is one of them. Mediation is an alternative for a classical system which is slow, creates a lot of workload and more importantly cannot really satisfy victims. The state punishes and executes the guilty, however, victims are never content with that. Generally victims say: “The guilty was jailed, but how does that benefit me?” Mediation places an emphasis on victims and ensures that we understand the perspective of victims and their suffering and that victims can be satisfied in another way except that offenders are punished. Mediation therefore is a system that gives importance to victims and strives to satisfy them.
UNDP Turkey: What is the situation in Turkey with regards to practising mediation in criminal justice system?
C.Ş.: Until recently the classical system had been implemented, that is, investigation, trial, penalization system. Mediation is a new approach. Every society approaches it with caution. This is a sort of revolution in law. Societies resist every revolution. Practitioners show caution because they are asked to do somehting outside of the system they get used to. In times of conflict, people are not psychologically ready for reconciliation so they can react in an angry way when mediation is offered. Public approaches mediation with caution as well for many reasons one which is a new approach for practitioners and parties. In fact, every country experienced a similar process. This system should be implemented through other measures. These meetings are part of that effort. We are trying to identify obstacles facing the mediation system and researching to find remedies for that. In fact, judges, prosecutors and lawyers, who will practise mediation, are accustomed to certain practices. Then, you say: “Let’s stop doing that and start this one!” They should be psychologically ready for that.
Currently we experience the challanges of that preparatory period. The mediation system should be introduced well and supported by other measures. Practising mediation should be made easier especially for prosecutors and judges. We expect sacrifices from them by saying: “You are very busy but please do it for the sake of your country.” They are public officials and they want it to be reflected on their careers. There should be legal regulations or incentives. We should promote the mediation system for judges and prosecutors. Simply saying “You must obey the law” is not enough. There are two ways in the law: the classical one and mediation. When they practise the classical way, they are promoted, thus it contributes to their careers. Nevertheless, when they practise mediation, nothing happens. We should prevent that. Just like they are rewarded in the classical system, an equal rewarding system should be established in mediation. Judges and prosecutors, who practise mediation, should be appreciated and the structure of mediation should be seen as doable. These are the deficiencies that we identified.
UNDP Turkey: What type of cases can be referred to mediation?
Michael Konigshofer (M.K.): A lot of cases can be referred to mediation but not all. You need to build a system, because there are some cases you cannot mediate. You cannot send the cases of organizations and really hard criminal cases to mediation. Mediation is an answer for a fraction of cases, such as mostly social conflicts, like neighborhood, traffic situations, and all small general cases.
UNDP Turkey: Does the practice of mediation vary depending on cultures? To what extent do you think the Turkish culture is ready for the practice of mediation or can adopt it?
M.K.: Mediation is not really a new concept, not in continental Europe, not in Turkey or not in Africa. People everywhere have measures to solve their conflicts. But we have to see it like a mirror of the development of the society. You also have to develop the criminal penal system to have the right answer for the development of the society. For example in the middle ages, we had some people who had the possibility to solve the conflicts between the farmers but if you said something against the king, they would cut your head away. In the development of the national state, it was necessary to make the penal system very strong…I think we are currently not in such a situation; development is achieved. So we can give back the conflicts and offences to the people as a part of the criminal system.
UNDP Turkey: Slovenia is a good example in terms of implementing the practice of mediation. Could you please explain how Slovenia achieved this? Also, what can Turkey learn from Slovenia’s experience?
Alenka Meznar: I had a very strange position while explaining my Turkish colleagues the implementation of victim offender mediation into Slovenia’s criminal law. Slovenia is a very small country, we have 200 prosecuters. Some of my Turkish colleagues began to laugh, they could not understand how many criminal cases the Slovenian prosecutors are dealing with, compared to those of Turkish prosecuters.
When I was in Ankara for the first time, I told them that Slovenian prosecutors are living in heaven because they have a very small work load you know... But it doesn’t matter, the main point is how they started to work in practice. The implementation overall was not difficult. In 1999 we made some ammendments to our criminal proceeding law. It was just in that time when recommendation about victim offender mediation was accepted. We only implemented those important facts from the recommendations into our criminal proceeding law and after one year we started to practice it. In that time there were only 150 prosecutors as far as I remember. We could train all of them together at once. After that we appointed about 200 mediators because we decided to have voluntary mediators in Slovenia. In Slovenia we have no probation agency…So we decided to have voluntary mediators, then we had to train those mediators too. After the first year, we recognized that almost 2000 cases were referred to the mediation. Then in the second year and the third year the number of cases was the same... But after that, the number of the referred cases slowly decreased, because our prosecutors not only had this kind of alternative measure but they could also use others; for example suspended prosecution… The main problem all prosecuters have in all over Europe is that they don’t trust mediators. I believe that is why Turkish prosecutors, although they are complaining about the work load, they want to do mediation themselves. It is a strange situation because everybody says “we have a lot of workload”, on the other hand, they want to carry out the practice of mediation by themselves. What does it mean? More work. They are complaining that they don’t refer enough cases to mediation. So I think that the most important task is how to convince them to refer more cases to mediation. That is very hard to do now, because of the trust issue. It is the same everywhere in Europe. You can have professional mediators and voluntary mediators.
The workshop on “Application of Systems Approach for Climate Change Adaptation in Seyhan River Basin” was attended by 95 experts from Adana, southern Turkey, Kayseri and Niğde, central Anatolia, representing the local government institutions, universities, non-governmental organisations in Seyhan River Basin.
In his opening speech, Deputy Governor of Adana Fikret Deniz said “Our world faces the global climate change problem. We should not be against the nature and change the balance. If we do so, we’ll pay for it in the coming future.”
UN Joint Programme Regional Project Coordinator Alper Acar explained that this would be the first workshop using systems approach (systems thinking, systems analysis etc.) for climate change to analyse complex systems such as the climate, eco-systems and human beings and to clarify the interrelations and interactions between these systems. Acar added: “The aim of the workshop is not only to establish a link between key issues related to climate change adaptation in Seyhan River Basin, but also to define the main themes and priorities for Community-Based Adaptation Grants Programme which will be undertaken as a part of the regional climate change adaptation strategy".
After the speeches, presentations on Turkey and Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change and Turkey, Climate Change and Seyhan River Basin were made and the results of stakeholder, livelihoods and ecosystem analyses of the basin were shared with the participants. Following the presentations the experts were grouped under different themes such as Water Resources and Water Quality, Agriculture and Food Security, Natural Resources Management, Natural Disasters and Disaster Management, Public Health, Infrastructure, Basin and Coastal Areas Management and worked on determining the problems and priorities with the systems approach introduced by Dr. Deniz Koca of Lundt University. The results of the group work were integrated into the causal loop diagram of climate induced problems of the basin.
The workshop was realized in the context of the UN Joint Programme “Enhancing the Capacity of Turkey to Adapt to Climate Change”, that aims to develop capacity for managing climate change risks to rural and coastal development in Turkey. This UN Joint Programme is an initiative with the participation of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the leading agency and coordinator of the project, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other stakeholders.
[BAGLANTILAR]
The whole statement of Ban Ki-moon is as follows:
"Social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations. We uphold the principles of social justice when we promote gender equality or the rights of indigenous peoples and migrants. We advance social justice when we remove barriers that people face because of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.
For the United Nations, the pursuit of social justice for all is at the core of our global mission to promote development and human dignity. Last year’s adoption by the International Labour Organization of the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization is just one recent example of the UN system’s commitment to social justice. The Declaration focuses on guaranteeing fair outcomes for all through employment, social protection, social dialogue, and fundamental principles and rights at work.
Tragically, social justice still remains an elusive dream for an appallingly large portion of humanity. Extreme poverty, hunger, discrimination and the denial of human rights continue to scar our moral landscape. The global financial crisis threatens to worsen these ills further still.
This year marks the first observance of the World Day of Social Justice proclaimed in 2007 by the United Nations General Assembly. The observance is meant to underscore the importance of social justice as an ethical imperative that should guide all our work.
Global stability and prosperity depend on ensuring that people enjoy acceptable levels of well-being and equality of opportunity. The absence of social justice for all should be an affront to us all. On this inaugural observance, let us renew our commitment to the principles of social justice and the vigorous pursuit of strategies and policies that will achieve it."