Green Wave, the radio show produced by the Env.net team in TEMA Foundation is now sponsored by Env.net for the coming six months. July, 7 was the 7th broadcast of the series.
This week our guest for Green Wave was Batur Avgan on the phone, from the Association for Preservation of Natural Resources and Biological Diversity (DoğaDer), one of the Env.net sub-grant recipients. The topic for this week’s broadcast was the “Tunceli Lynx Communication Network” Project that DoğaDer has completed recently, with the support of the Env.net sub-grant. The project’s major concern of DoğaDer, which also is the main driver of the Project, was the absence of information regarding the habitat and struggles of wildcats. That is why, in the frames of the Project an observation and a communication network was formed to identify the struggles and challenges that lnyxes in Tunceli region were encountering.
In the lines of the projects a group of informants was formed and they were encouraged to provide and collect information on lynxes by interacting with the local people in numerous areas within the region. The ultimate goal of the project is to raise awareness about the importance of lynxes for the ecosystem that they live in, encourage preservation of lynxes and their habitats. In this sense Mr. Avgan suggested communication with the local people was an essential part of understanding the local people’s perception of wildcats and also contributed vastly to take the project to the next step.
The podcast of the broadcast in Turkish can be listened at the following link: click here
Green Wave, the radio show produced by the Env.net team in TEMA Foundation is now sponsored by Env.net for the coming six months. June, 30 was the 6th broadcast of the series.
This week our guests for Green Wave were Dr. Hikmet Öztürk, Head of Forestry and Rural Development Department of TEMA, Ferhat Taze, Project Coordinator from the Forestry and Rural Development Department of TEMA, both experts on forestry. The topic for this week’s broadcast was about the forest wildfires that are occurring more frequently with the coming of the summer season. Dr. Hikmet Öztürk talked about the natural and human induced causes of the forest wildfires and said that natural wildfires may occur due to thunders and other nature events, and they are occurring less frequently, due to increasing drought and high temperatures during the summer times. Hovewer, event though total number of natural causes constitute 10 percent of the all the fire cases, the total area burned during these natural fires are not very large, since thunders are usually followed by rain. Dr. Öztürk emphasized that more than 90 percent of the all wildfires are caused by human activities, especially due to the reckless behaviors by the recreational users. And the area burned due to these human induced fires is much larger.
After Dr. Öztürk, Ferhat Taze continued by explaining the real damage these wildfires are causing to the nature and ecosystem services. He said that the loss area due to wildfires cannot be perceived only as a bulk of trees standing together. The forest is bigger than the sum of individual trees and homes many other lifeforms – animals, insects, birds, microorganisms, plants, and so on. The wildfires are also destroying the habitat of many important species. Furthermore, wildfires have important negative effects on climate change, by destroying the precious carbon sinks and releasing carbon to the atmosphere. Mr. Taze added that the burnt land is more prone to the soil erosion as well. So, wildfires are also affecting priceless ecosystem services that the nature provides to humans.
Both experts then replied the questions about the rehabilitation and legal issues related to the burnt areas. They said that these areas are protected by the law and cannot be used for other purposes and activities such as tourism or buildings. However, we may see some illegal developments in some occasions. The experts warned the listeners to alert the local and national authorities if ever they witness some illegal activites in those areas.
The podcast of the broadcast in Turkish can be listened at the following link: click here
NGO Green Home as representative from the ENV.net Montenegro will take part in the EU Balkans Civil Society Forum Paris.
At a moment of existential crisis for Europe, civil society need to be at the core of a renewed effort and vision to face common challenges. The Civil Society Forum brings together activists and representatives of civil society from the European Union and the Western Balkans to formulate recommendations for the future of the European project, and integration of the Western Balkans countries.
This forum is organised on the occasion of the 3rd intergovernmental summit of Western Balkans and EU countries to be held in Paris on the 4th July 2016. It follows the Civil Society Forum held in Vienna in August 2015, and in Novi Sad and Belgrade in May 2016, where four main policy areas have been identified as priorities for the Western Balkans region. Migration , climate change and green growth , bilateral disputes and youth cooperation will be part of the Paris Forum Programme and are likely to be discussed by the political leaders.
The two days of activities will be structured around workshops, dialogue with European and national parliamentarians, cultural activities and an open public citizen’s summit on European solidarity.
The forum is open to all civil society organization representatives who want to be engaged in a long term process of collaboration across borders and in the making of strong policy proposals for the future of Europe and the region of the Western Balkans.
The forum is coordinated by European Alternatives, ERSTE Stiftung, European Fund for Balkans, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Citizens for Europe et de la Fondation Charles Léopold Mayer
This week our guest for Green Wave was Batur Avgan on the phone, from the Association for Preservation of Natural Resources and Biological Diversity (DoğaDer), one of the Env.net sub-grant recipients. The topic for this week’s broadcast was the “Tunceli Lynx Communication Network” Project that DoğaDer has completed recently, with the support of the Env.net sub-grant. The project’s major concern of DoğaDer, which also is the main driver of the Project, was the absence of information regarding the habitat and struggles of wildcats. That is why, in the frames of the Project an observation and a communication network was formed to identify the struggles and challenges that lnyxes in Tunceli region were encountering.
