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Dealing with environmental problems, "participation" has emerged as a central theme. There has, for some time, been a growing recognition within the government and society at large that the future of Turkish environmental protection depends on more effective participation of multiple stakeholders. Along with growing appreciation of the potential benefits has come more systematic understanding of the factors that currently inhibit wider and more effective use of participatory techniques in Turkey. Over the last decade, there has been a succession of studies pointing to the conclusion that current environmental practices, entrenched institutional arrangements and attitudes, and poorly adapted laws are major constraints on participatory approaches. With specific reference to the legal framework, there is a growing consensus that Turkish legislation falls short in comparison to those in most developed countries and acts as a constraint on participation because of its command and control approach, in which most decisions are made by the state and the principal role of law is to ensure compliance and penalise non-compliance with those decisions. The law does not fully reflect current social, economic and environmental realities. The purpose of this study is to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of Turkey's environmental law per se, by highlighting some international lessons and practices that might be useful to Turkey as it considers what future steps to take in improving the legal framework for participation. The 1998 case in which the environmentally damaging activities of the Eurogod Mining Company at Bergama, Western Turkey, were stopped following a petition by local people to the Appeals Court is cited as an example. This case study reflects the people's participation in environmental issues and supports the main argument of this article, from which recommendations are made for improving the legal outline for participation.

The concept of "High Conservation Value" which was initially used by the Forest Stewardship Council, now plays an increasingly important role in several areas, and most significantly in the design and implementation of development projects. Within the framework of certification of community forests in Cameroon, this concept has been implemented in close collaboration with interested communities. Based on the activities conducted, it is worth noting that the consideration of informal management methods appear to result in better protection of biodiversity. Several categories of High Conservation Values were identified in 2 community-managed forests (Coopérative des Paysans de la Lékié & Bimbia Bonadikombo Community Forests) in Cameroon. Rare or endangered ecosystems, more than 300 plant species and more than 20 wildlife species, including endemic, rare, threatened or endangered species were found. Traditional conservation methods based on culture, as well as some ancestral practices and beliefs help to achieve this protection. Decision-makers and academics should learn from this empirical knowledge for protection programmes and projects of biodiversity.

Forests cover approximately one-third of the global landscape and provide many ecosystem services. Both aboveground and belowground ecosystems together comprise a complete forest. Despite the fact that belowground ecosystems play an essential role in forest functioning, belowground systems are far less well studied and understood. Increasing knowledge of belowground ecosystems provides a more complete understanding of forest environments and advances ecosystem restoration efforts. There are many ways to redirect focus belowground; this paper proposes three examples: first, increase focus within the scientific community; second, incorporate belowground conservation in forest management policies; and third, recognize the sequestration capacity of belowground ecosystems as a climate change mitigation tool.

Biofuels production has increased rapidly in recent years due to higher petroleum prices as well as heightened concerns regarding climate change and energy security. However, because commercially viable biofuels are currently produced primarily from agricultural feedstocks, higher production volumes increase pressure on land resources. Thus, large-scale biofuels production has important implications for the forest and agriculture sectors, land use, trade, and net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Competition for land is expected to continue growing in the future as mandated biofuels volumes increase along with rising demand for food, feed, and fiber, both domestically and internationally. In response to heightened concern regarding impacts such as indirect land-use change and higher food prices, the U.S. policy is focusing on second-generation (cellulosic) feedstocks to contribute the majority of the mandated increase in biofuels volume through 2022. However, there has been little work exploring the logistics of supplying these feedstocks or examining feedstock mix and net GHG effects of combining renewable fuels mandates with climate policy. In this paper, we apply the recently updated Forest and Agricultural Sector Optimization Model with GHGs (FASOMGHG) to explore the implications of alternative assumptions regarding feedstock storage costs and carbon price for renewable energy production mix, land use, and net GHG emissions. The model is used to quantify the magnitude and regional distribution of changes in the optimal mix of bioenergy feedstocks when accounting for storage costs. In addition, we find that combining the biofuels volume mandate with a carbon price policy has additional implications for feedstock mix and provides a substantially larger net reduction in GHG than a renewable fuels mandate alone.

Many environmentalists are concerned that renewable bioenergy, such as corn or wood ethanol will not reduce carbon emissions but will deplete forests. Using a general stylized forest sector management model, our study examines the economic potential of traditional industrial forests and supplemental dedicated fuelwood plantations to produce biomass on submarginal lands not suitable for most crop agriculture. The study finds that forests can economically produce large levels of biofuel without compromising crop production, thereby avoiding price pressures that lead to cropland conversion and carbon emissions.

This paper studies the relationship between forest cover and drinking water chemical treatment costs using land use data and a survey by the American Water Works Association (AWWA). The survey gathers cost and water quality data from 37 treatment plants in forested ecoregions of the United States. We model the effect of forest conversion on the cost of water treatment using a two-step process. First, we examine the effect of changes in land use on water quality through an ecological production function. Second, we examine the effect of changes in water quality on cost of treatment through an economic benefits function. We find a negative relationship between forest cover and turbidity, but no relationship between forest cover and total organic carbon (TOC). Increasing forest cover in a watershed by 1% reduces turbidity by 3%, and increasing development by 1% in a watershed increases turbidity by 3%. The impact of development is more consistent across models than the impact of forest cover. We also find a large impact on turbidity from grazing in the watershed. Our economic benefits function shows a 1% increase in turbidity increases water treatment costs by 0.19%, and 1% increase in TOC increases water treatment costs by 0.46%. TOC has a clearer impact on costs than turbidity, which becomes insignificant when we omit one of our observations with high turbidity.

We summarize effects of ground-level ozone (O₃) on plants beginning at the atmosphere–leaf interface, and then following with responses at the cellular level and the resulting foliar injury leading to impacts on plant growth. Impacts on crop yield are discussed with the potential for improving O₃ tolerance through plant breeding. Impacts of O₃ on trees are analyzed with reference to ecosystem functioning and trophic interactions. Facilities to investigate O₃ effects on vegetation, O₃ phytotoxicity metrics, and O₃-protectant chemicals are described.

The article on the Climate Science Special Report: 4th U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA4), Volume I, summarizes the basis and the requirements for developing U.S. national climate assessments. The reader is referred to that material, as it is not repeated here. Instead, the focus in this chapter is on NCA4, Volume II, which is an assessment of climate-related impacts, risks, and adaptation in the United States. NCA4, Volume II (USGCRP, 2018), was published on November 23, 2018, and the entire assessment report is available at NCA2018.globalchange.gov…