Put It Out, Before It Burns

Forests play a key role in combating the climate crisis and protecting biodiversity due to their functions in regulating climate, producing water, preventing floods, avalanches and in mitigating the effects of drought, and their biodiversity.

While carrying out our work with this awareness, we aimed to learn lessons from past fires and raise public awareness of forest fire prevention with the "Forest Fires Awareness Project" we launched in the summer of 2022.

In 2023, considering that the vast majority of forest fires in Türkiye are caused by humans, we focused on raising awareness on this issue to prevent forest fires caused by human negligence and carelessness during the summer months, when fires are more common.

HUMAN-CAUSED DAMAGE HAS A GREAT EFFECT IN FIRES

The forest fires that escalated into disasters during the summer months of 2021 were a major topic on Türkiye's agenda. According to official data, these fires, the largest in Türkiye's history, burned 133,000 hectares of forest and 26,000 hectares of agricultural land. Nine people and millions of animals lost their lives. Türkiye's nature and life in the fire zones were severely damaged.

In our country, 12% of the causes of forest fires in the last 25 years have been identified as natural, while 88% have been identified as intentional, negligent, accidental, or of unknown cause, demonstrating the significant human impact on these fires. Forest fire statistics show that the number of forest fires is increasing linearly each year. While an average of approximately 2,000 forest fires occurred annually between 2000 and 2010, this number has increased by 28% since 2010, exceeding 2,600. This increase is undoubtedly due to the increased interaction between forests and humans during fire season. 60% of our forest assets are located in areas with the highest fire risk. This requires us to be extremely vigilant against fires to protect the forests that are vital to our country.

LET'S NOT FORGET;

• A cigarette butt thrown into the forest or an area close to the forest can start burning the surrounding grass and plants.
• A barbecue fire that is not properly extinguished can be re-ignited by the wind.
• A glass bottle or similar waste thrown into the forest can create a fire due to the lens effect of sunlight.
• When stubble burning is done in areas close to the forest boundary, it can turn into a forest fire.

FOR THIS REASON;

• Fires should never be lit in forest areas or areas close to forest borders.
• Picnics should not be held in forests other than in permitted picnic areas.
• Make sure that any picnic fires are completely extinguished.
• Garbage, plastic, glass bottles and glass pieces should not be thrown into the forest.
• Smoking should not be allowed in forest areas, and cigarette butts should never be thrown on forest edge highways or in areas close to the forest.
• Stubble burning should be stopped.
• In cases where there is a risk of fire, the Emergency Call Line 112 or the Forest Fire Reporting Line 177 should be called immediately to report the incident.

As the TEMA Foundation, we remind you that even small negligences can lead to disaster, and we call on all our people to be vigilant against the increasing risk of forest fires as the weather warms.