Evaluation Of Environmental Governance: The Case Of Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality

Tackling environmental problems that transcend political boundaries requires coordinated global and local action. Environmental governance is a tool for achieving coordination to deal with environmental problems worldwide. In the process of environmental governance, actors approach environmental problems from different angles within a heterarchical network of phenomena, understand and evaluate these problems, and develop solutions together. Local governments are active actors in solving environmental problems. The more local governments’ perceptions of environmental governance improve, the easier it is to solve environmental problems and the faster the establishment of governance culture in decision-making processes. This study aims to analyze the effects of the governance approach, which has increased its influence in public administration since the last quarter of the 20th century, and environmental governance as a product of environmental security issues, which is a product of the change in security perceptions after the Cold War, on local governments. The extent to which the employees of the Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality are aware of the principles and processes of environmental governance was analyzed through qualitative research methods. This study revealed that the Metropolitan Municipality staff emphasized the necessity of governance principles and processes against environmental problems, but they were unaware that this situation was evaluated within the environmental governance approach and that they were unaware of the concept of environmental governance. Therefore, this local government unit has not reached the level of environmental governance as an institutional culture.