On 18-21 June 2021, the Gala Lake Nature Park was visited by a group of photographers within the project “Environmental awareness and behavior to stop pollution in significant wetlands of the Black Sea basin”, BSB142, funded by the Cross-border Cooperation Programme under the European Neighborhood Instrument “Black Sea Basin 2014-2020” implemented by Nature Protection and Nature Parks Edirne Division Directorate – PP2 iğn partnership with 6 partners from five different countries.

The visit was organized in order to get acquainted with the activities of the project and to photograph the complex of protected areas Gala Lake – their beauty, biodiversity, threats. The photographers will provide the images that will be presented at a traveling international photo exhibition aimed at informing the public about the problems of pollution and threats to the ecosystem and the ecological sustainability of the target wetlands and the Black Sea basin.

Three important photographers visited Gala Lake in frame of the project and during the three days made their photos for promotion of the local biodiversity and the threats to the ecosystem in this important wetland.

The photographer Ali ÇITAK is one of the people who have recorded the natural beauties and creatures of Gala Lake with his lens for many years and played an important role in the declaration of Gala Lake as National Park.

The photographer Ahmet ÇAMLICA especially takes pictures of wildlife and birds /ornito/. He made hundreds of studies and photographs in Gala Lake.

The photographer Volkan AYDIN is again the master of nature photography and is a member of Edirne Photography Art Association.

‘Clean Waters – Clean Black Sea Basin’ Environmental Event was held on 17 June with a wide participation in order to inform the younger generation about the importance of wetlands in Edirne’s Enez district and to protect them from pollutants and to create conscious minds about nature.

On the day of the event, before the cleaning of the wetland areas, the “I Become an Environmental Volunteer” activity was held for children.

In order to gain awareness of children about the environment: video presentations on environmental protection, the introduction of the e-learning platform and information on the importance of Gala Lake and wetlands, a painting and recycling workshop, face painting activities were organized and at the end Environmental Volunteer badges were distributed to children.

Durign the event, brief information about the project was given by the project coordinator of PP2, the director of the Nature Conservation and National Parks Edirne Division Directorate made informaitve speech on the actişvities of PP2 and the Deputy Director of 1st Regional Directorate of Nature Conservation and Nature Parks Direcorate made speech on the environmental awareness and final speech was made by the Governor of Enez district.

The ‘Sing for nature’ music event was made after speeches and danced with the children.

After the opening activities of the event the children and nature volunteers moved to the wetlands to realized cleaning activities.

Great interest was shown to the event and participation was provided from Istanbul, Edirne, Uzunkopru, Kesan and near vilages of Enez.

More than 350 environmental volunteers participated in the event and cleaning activities.

In frame of the project BioLearn, BSB-142 implementing by six partners under the ENI Black Sea Basin Cross-Border Cooperation Programme funded by the European Union with participation of 25 volunteers was carried out ‘Training for Trainers’ with aim to instill the love of nature in the young people and in line with the developed 12 Educational Series.

During the training, the volunteers who are interested in environmental issues were trained both in the Gala Lake Nature Park Open Air Class and in the Enez town. Additionally, the volunteers came together with the local children during the environmental event ‘Clean Waters – Clean Black Sea Basin’ orginized on 17 June in Enez within the scope of the project.

The ‘Training for Trainers’ was carried our in scope of the 2nd Project activity, and the trainings will continue with the online trainings to the children and young people in frame of the prepared training program and uploaded in www.bio-learn.org Project web site.