The General Directorate of Forestry (OGM), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, has developed prevention and response models and prepared emergency evacuation plans for 10 selected villages as part of its wildfire prevention efforts.
A significant portion of Türkiye’s forests, located within the Mediterranean climate zone, are at risk of wildfires.
The ministry continues its fight against forest fires with a strategy focused on prevention, extinguishing and reforestation. In this scope, new vehicles, technologies and projects have been added to the inventory to prevent fires and minimize losses.
Taking a new step in wildfire prevention, OGM has collaborated with local governments and the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) to finalize a project to strengthen the resilience of forest villages to wildfires.
Through this initiative, local solutions have been developed to enhance the fire prevention and response capacity of both the General Directorate and forest villages. The project also aims to expand these activities to a national and international level and eventually include other types of disasters.
The project consists of pilot studies to strengthen institutional capacity, conduct scientific and technical evaluations, and improve emergency response coordination to increase the resilience of forest villages against fires.
To develop and implement fire prevention and response models tailored to forest villages, 10 villages with different characteristics were selected. Close collaboration was established with local residents to understand their needs and expectations while enhancing their capacities.
As part of capacity-building efforts, surveys were conducted among village residents and training sessions were planned with the participation of the General Directorate’s regional units and other state institutions.
AFAD experts provided technical training on wildfire prevention and disaster response through workshops and guidebooks for local government personnel and villagers. These training sessions also included emergency drills to raise awareness among residents on fire prevention, early extinguishing, emergency response and evacuation procedures.
As a result of the project, 10 customized emergency and evacuation plans were prepared, along with a wildfire emergency capacity-building report and a climate change vulnerability and risk assessment report for forest villages.
