Page 142 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 1

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PASTURES IN CLIMATE
CHANGE MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION PROCESSES

Dalya HAZAR KALONYA

ABSTRACT
Agriculture sector have been the forefront economic sector in Türkiye in the
historical process and is vital for rural development and food security. Howev-
er, because of the climate crisis, malpractices, inadequate rural policies, and
the conflicts in the rural areas, agricultural sector weakens, and young popu-
lation migrates from rural to urban. Disabled pastures are irreversibly lost by
allocation to other land uses such as quarries, power plants and mines due to
the transformative effects of enclosure movements. Pastures, which are our
natural assets and rural-ecological commons in terms of rich biodiversity, ero-
sion prevention, rural development, and rural tradition, are also crucial car-
bon sinks. It is seen that the pastures, which are important for the husbandry
activities that produce most agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, have a
significant carbon absorption capacity. In the study, it is aimed to reveal the
role of pastures in climate change mitigation and adaptation processes and
the policies that should be developed from this perspective. Accordingly,
a pasture indicator set was created by focusing on the ongoing conflicts in
the pastures through literature review, media analysis and field studies and
adapted to the DPSIR causal analysis model. Protection and improvement of
pastures through ecologically sensitive rural planning, holistic grazing man-
agement and improved rural policies are crucial for the sustainability of natu-
ral assets, rural development, and climate change adaptation strategies.

Keywords: Climate Change, Carbon Absorption, Carbon Sink, Pastures,
Commons, Rural Planning.

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