Participatory Forest Management and Gender Inclusiveness within the Community Forest Management Groups of Bhutan

Community forest management groups (CFMGs) in Bhutan exhibit participatory forest management practices that recognize the importance of community’s collective participation in the management of natural forest resources. This approach involves the community in the stewardship of designated forest areas and resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods and realization of forest conservation objectives. The increase of CFMGs in the country has been successful. However, research on the extent of gender-inclusive participation in CFMGs is either insufficient or missing vis-à-vis the allocation of decision-making power. Therefore, this study analyzes the factors influencing gender participation in CFMGs and their integration into decision-making processes. Primary data were collected from 12 study sites spanning 4 regions, complemented by secondary data from the Forest Department. Regression models were used to identify factors significantly influencing CFMG member participation in decision-making. The empirical results of this study reveal that gender is a significant factor influencing participation in CFMG decision-making. The study concludes that there is insufficient participation of women members in decision-making processes. Therefore, consideration of gender should be included in the development phase of the CFMG policy in addition to promoting awareness of inequity between gender and the promotion of leadership roles for women in CFMGs.

The Economic and Environmental Impacts of Constructing Hydro Power Plants in Turkey:A Dynamic CGE Analysis(2004-2020)

Since Turkey’s economy and population is rapidly growing, Turkey mostly meets its energy demand from imported fossil sources due to the very limited indigenous oil and natural gas resources. However, Turkey has abundant renewable resources especially, hydro power potential to be used for generation of electricity. But only one-third of this significant economical potential could be used. This usage seems insufficient when compared with that of European countries. In order to analyze the potential long term impacts of the hydro power expanding shock on some macroeconomic variables of interest such as GDP, real consumption, real investment, exports, imports, trade balance, and carbon emissions, we developed TurGEM-D, a dynamic multisectoral general equilibrium model of the Turkish economy. Using TurGEM-D, we analyzed the impact of hydro power shock under policy scenario doubling hydro power generation. The simulation results show that doubling hydro power have slightly positive effects on macro indicators and carbon emissions for Turkish economy.

Quantitative hazard assessment for Zonguldak Coal Basin underground mines

Underground coal mining is one of the most dangerous occupations throughout the world.The reasons behind an underground occupational accident are too complex to analyze mainly due to many uncertainties which may arise from geological,operational conditions of the mine or individual characteristics of employees.This study proposes implementing a quantitative methodology for the analysis and assessment of hazards associated with occupational accidents.The application of the proposed approach is performed on the mines of Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises(TTK).The accidents in TTK between the years 2000 and 2014 are firstly statistically analyzed with respect to the number,type and location of accidents,age,experience,education level and main duty of the casualties and also injuries resulting from such accidents.The hazards are classified as individual,operational and locational hazards and quantified using contingency tables,conditional and total probability theorems.Lower and upper boundaries of hazards are determined and event trees for each hazard class are prepared.Total hazard evaluation results show that Armutcuk,Karadon and Uzulmez mines have relatively high hazard levels while Amasra and Kozlu mines have relatively lower hazard values.