A photography exhibition was organized in Fethiye with the collaboration of Muğla Regional Forestry Directorate and Fethiye TEMA Foundation. The photographs, exhibited in front of the TEMA offices on the seafront promenade attracted a great deal of interest. Muğla Regional Forestry Director İbrahim Aydın explained that they had organized this exhibition to enable people to see the damage a forest fire causes to nature and wildlife. Oktay Tirli, the Fethiye TEMA Foundation representative, speaking at the opening of the exhibition at 4:30 pm yesterday, explained the importance of forests for the environment. Also pointing out the dangers arising in burnt out areas, Tirli expressed the need for added vigilance against forest fires. Fethiye Forests Administration Director Reşat Tunç, taking the stand after Tirli, said, “We foresters try to the everything well, and we do. But there was always something lacking, we couldn”t tell the public about this, we couldn”t introduce ourselves. I see with this exhibition that such limitations have been overcome. Our organization is showing the public what it does, and the struggles it encounters. This makes me very happy. To see the endeavors of many years bearing fruit now is very moving. I congratulate everybody who worked on this, and I thank them.”
Muğla Regional Forestry Director İbrahim Aydın, last to take the stand, explained that they had organized this exhibition to display the damage forest fires cause to nature and wildlife, added, “Fighting forest fires is a battle. You can clearly see the struggles of this battle in these photographs. You can also see in these photographs exactly what perishes if we lose this battle. Our forestry organization has moved considerably forward in fighting forest fires in the last few years. Turkey is now the foremost country in the Mediterranean Basin in fighting forest fires. We are the strongest country in the region, both with our land forces and with our air power. You can see how we fight forest fires in this photograph exhibition. Furthermore, you can also see the photographs that show it is not only the forest that burns. When we take a look at the reasons of forest fires, we see that 97% start from human sources. Our training programs and such photograph exhibitions will continue in an effort to reduce to a minimum such human sourced fires.”
The photograph exhibition titled “Not Just the Forests Burn” attracted the interest of the other city officials, and especially tourists from abroad who were walking along the promenade were deeply affected by the photographs. The exhibition, during which a TV film was also presented and which includes scenes of firefighting, burnt out areas and wildlife that died in the fires, will remain open three more days.
