The deceased businessman Salih Tatlıcı’s wife Nurten Tatlıcı and their son Uğur Tatlıcı have
donated 700 saplings to the “Ağrı Sabuncu Memorial Forest,” a project of TEMA, Turkish
Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural
Habitats, to support our forest areas that are the guarantee of our future. TEMA Foundation
certified 700 saplings planted with the donations of Nurten and Uğur Tatlıcı.
We will continue to donate saplings to increase our forest areas.
Regarding the donation, “My late father also loved nature very much. He used to say,
‘nature is the most precious gift given to us.’ To live in a clean world, to protect and develop
our existing forests very well to prevent erosion, we should also plant more trees and
encourage the planting of trees at every opportunity to produce new forest areas. Protecting
nature and leaving a healthy environment consisting of clean air, water, and soil to future
generations should be our main goals. For this reason, together with my mother, Nurten
Tatlıcı, we continue to support the growth of our forests. In cooperation with the TEMA
Foundation, which has been carrying out significant works for many years to protect
natural assets and develop afforestation areas, in addition to combating erosion and
desertification in our country, we planted 2000 saplings in the forest area that will bear the
name of my father, the late Salih Tatlıcı, in 2009 and donated these saplings on behalf of
our loved ones. This year, we aimed to plant 700 saplings in the “Ağrı Sabuncu Memorial
Forest,” a project of the TEMA Foundation, in memory of my late father, Salih Tatlıcı, and
present them to Mother Nature on behalf of our loved and respected close ones. We will
always continue to do our part to protect nature and the environment.” Uğur Tatlıcı said.
TEMA Foundation, Our Pioneer Organization in Combating Erosion and
Desertification
The Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and the Protection of
Natural Habitats, known by the public by its acronym, TEMA, was founded in 1992 by
businessmen named Hayrettin Karaca and A. Nihat Koçyiğit, with the slogan “Don’t Let
Turkey Become a Desert.” Karaca and Koçyiğit, known as Toprak Dede [Grandpa Soil]
and Yaprak Dede [Grandpa Leaf], respectively, by nature lovers and the wider public, due
to their pioneering initiatives in this field, took crucial steps to prevent the desertification of
our country as the founder and honorary presidents of the foundation.
Besides carrying out afforestation studies to create new forest areas in all cities of our country,
TEMA Foundation —which continues its activities as a voluntary, conscious, pioneering,
international, and respected Non-Governmental Organization that works based on science for
the protection of all-natural assets, especially our lands, with the principle of sustainable life,
believes in social peace coming from the soil, integrates with the people, has a say in the
future of the country and the world— draws attention as a pioneering organization that
organizes educational activities to raise environmental awareness, carries out social
responsibility projects for rural development and the creation of new environmental policies,
and develops collaborations with the world’s leading environmental protection organizations,
especially the United Nations, and has won international awards for all these activities.
