12 Nov 2019; MEMO: Turkey planted over 13 million saplings on Monday as part of a massive tree-planting campaign in hope for a breath for the future in a greener country.
The forestation campaign for a greener Turkey began with the declaration of November 11 by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the National Forestation Day to be marked annually.
The campaign gained wide interest in a very short time and a total of 13,747,708 saplings were donated in a nationwide campaign, surpassing the target of 11,047,430.”By planting 4.5 billion saplings over the last 17 years, the breath of Turkey’s forests has expanded from 20.8 million hectares to 22.6 million,” Erdogan told a mass tree-planting ceremony in the capital Ankara, referring to the tenure of his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party.
Manisa from the Aegean, the Mediterranean province of Isparta, eastern Tunceli and Bingol provinces and Edirne in northwestern Turkey topped the list with saplings planted the most.
In the central province of Corum, a group of people worked to set a Guinness World Record for most saplings planted within an hour. With over 300,000 saplings planted in Corum, Turkey is ready to beat Indonesia which holds the world record with 232,647 saplings.
