GIRESUN
Chairman of the Turkish Forestry Department Mustafa Kurtulmuslu on Tuesday said that they spent 300 million USD per year in the fight against forest fires.
Speaking to the Anadolu Agency (AA) while visiting a regional office of his department in the north-eastern province of Giresun on Tuesday, Kurtulmuslu stressed that they considered it a great loss even if a single tree gets burned in a forest fire.
"Forests should not have fires or should not be burned," Kurtulmuslu noted.
"Forest fires are highly common in regions with Mediterranean climate. Regions with no rainfall for 3-4 months are those with high risks for forest fires," Kurtulmuslu stressed.
"So far in 2012, around 10,000 hectares of forests were damaged in forest fires in Turkey," Kurtulmuslu said.
"Out of 2,400 forest fires in a given year, 2,000 are caused by individuals," Kurtulmuslu also said.
