Abstract:Scientists express concern about increasing levels of greenhouse gases mainly due to fossil fuel consumption and deforestation. In response to the latter, policy-makers have introduced a range of policy measures to conserve and enhance forest ecosystems for carbon sequestration. The costs for policy measures to maintain ecosystem services can be calculated easily, but especially non-market/non-use benefits of forests are not easy to estimate. Economics can help designing climate change policies by eliciting public preferences on different attributes of climate change and carbon sequestration. This study was prepared for the purpose of identifying per capita consumer/equivalent surplus or maximum willingness to pay and the total economic value in relation to forests to be established in Turkey to reduce air pollution around cities, to prevent the adverse effects of climate change and to sequester carbon. The data for the estimation of maximum willingness to pay, total economic value and co-benefits of forests were collected with a questionnaire form prepared according to the contingent valuation method. Analyses have been conducted by correlation analysis and regression analysis. According to the analyses, per capita consumer/equivalent surplus or maximum willingness to pay to establish a new forest was estimated at US$ 23.52 on average, while total economic value was estimated at US$ 270,443,962.68.

Adaptation of the administrative structure of the General Directorate of Forestry and some forestry legislation to the Turkish emissions trading system.

Climate change negotiations focus on developing a new climate agreement with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties for the post-2020 climate regime. With this new agreement many developed Parties including Turkey would take quantified economy-wide emissions reduction targets. In that case, Turkey would benefit from flexibility and market mechanisms. Therefore, an emission trading system should be developed until 2020 in Turkey. This paper has been prepared for the purpose of describing and developing an institutional model for an emissions trading system in Turkey. The emissions trading system will consist of