Türkiye will bring the international fire coordination center proposal to the agenda at COP31

General Director of Forestry Bekir Karacabey stated that Türkiye will share its experience in fighting forest fires and afforestation with other countries at the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31), and that they aim to develop collaborations for the establishment of joint coordination and training centers in response to large fires.

Karacabey told the AA correspondent that the fight against climate change cannot be evaluated independently of forests, and that COP31 offers an important opportunity for Türkiye to share its 187-year forestry experience internationally.

Pointing out that they will hold meetings at the level of ministers and general managers with the forest organizations of other countries within the scope of the summit, Karacabey said, "As can be seen in FAO's 2025 reports, Turkey ranks third among the countries that have increased their forest assets the most in the world and first in Europe. We will also share our experience on this afforestation with the countries that need to do more work in the field of afforestation." he said.

Karacabey pointed out that forest fires have reached such dimensions that countries cannot fight them alone, and continued as follows:

"We believe that some concrete results will be achieved in the establishment of joint coordination centers and establishment of joint training centers along with sharing knowledge and experience in forest fires during this COP process. We will also invite the ministers of other countries to our International Forestry Training Center Directorate in Antalya and convey that we can provide the training we have given to experts from 22 countries to the center there to more countries. At the same time, we will convey to the countries that that center can be used not only as a training center, but also as an international fire coordination command center in large fires."

Karacabey noted that they aim to develop international cooperation on climate-resistant forest management.

Stating that they have created a system that will be an example to the world in combating forest fires, Karacabey said, "Especially European countries, such as Spain, Belgium, Greece and Italy, want to receive information because they follow our country's success in forest fires." he said.

Managing risks is a priority in combating forest fires

Karacabey said that climate change increases the risk of fire, but human-caused negligence plays an important role in the outbreak of fires.

Stating that they focus on preventive work in their firefighting strategies, Karacabey said, "Unfortunately, it is not possible to prevent these fires unless we eliminate the human factor." he said.

Karacabey explained that they carried out awareness-raising activities for different segments of the society, as well as maintaining forests before the fire, reducing the amount of flammable materials, creating fire prevention strips and buffer zones.

"We are the second country after America to use unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor forests."

On the other hand, Karacabey stated that they used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for early detection of fires and said:

"We are the second country in the world, after America, to use unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor forests in order to receive early information. As of today, we are using 14 UAVs in surveillance activities in our forests. In this way, as of today, we have used 776 forest fire observation towers, 184 of which are equipped with cameras, which we call smart towers. In addition, by using UAVs, we have reduced the time it takes to receive information about fires to 2 minutes."

Karacabey noted that the time taken for the first team to start intervening in the fire was reduced to 11 minutes from 40 minutes approximately 30 years ago, and that they conducted fire risk analyzes and directed land and air teams to the regions before the fire broke out.

The effects of climate change are taken into account in forest management

Pointing out that the results of forestry practices emerge after many years, Karacabey emphasized that the future effects of climate change in forest management should be taken into account today.

Karacabey stated that increasing temperature and drought can weaken forests, causing the spread of harmful insects and fungi, drying out of trees and damaging forest ecosystems, and made the following evaluations: