TEHRAN – Masoumeh Ebtekar, head of Iran's Department of Environment has said that a “social movement” is needed to protect forests against fires and damages, the Mehr news agency reported on Saturday.

Ebtekar called on Iranians to join the movement to save the jungles.
“A review of the the aerial photographs, taken over the last 50 years, proves that an average 2,867 hectares of the forests in northern Iran have been damaged year by year. Should this trend continue, no trace of jungles will remain from Tertiary Period in the north of Iran,” Ebtekar said.
Tertiary Period is the interval of geologic time lasting from approximately 65.5 million to 2.6 million years ago. 
Since summer time is the peak travel season, the representatives from national media, Department of Environment and Forest Range and Watershed Management Organization marked July 30th as “Day of Forests, Secret of Survival” to promote protection of forests.
Numerous training programs are on the agenda to raise people’s awareness of the importance and protection of the forests; national and local media are also tasked to cover the programs in the best possible way.
PT/MJ