Evaluation of environment policies in Turkey’s development plans

Abstract

Turkey’s five years development plans had been prepared by State Planning Organization (SPO) before 2011; since that time, Ministry of Development has been preparing these plans. The plans include the resources of development goals and preparations that are necessary in order to reach these goals. There are ten development plans including the years between 1963 and 2018. The basic goal of all these development plans is to ensure Turkish citizens have a fortunate and prosperous life. The environment, which is the topic of the article, is the setting in which human continue his biologic, economic, social and cultural life. Its significance of the environment is increasing especially in terms of production, employment and trade every day. The goal of this study is to review environment policies included in the development plans, to analyze their relations with other policies, to bring up Turkey’s environmental problems to the agenda and to develop solution suggestions to these problems. Development activities should be carried out without causing any damage to the environment. Protection of environment should be prioritized during the process of urbanization and industrialization. This research is based on qualitative design document analysis technique and environment policies that are mentioned in ten development plans are analyzed. Rather than fighting with environmental pollution, it is much more economic to take precautions in order to prevent it.