BEKİR PAKDEMİRLİ: 82 MILLION SAPLINGS WILL BE PLANTED ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Turkey's agriculture and forestry minister said Friday that 82 million saplings, almost as many as the country's population, will be planted across the country by November. "The rooting average of the saplings planted on Nov. 11, 2019, is 95 percent," Bekir Pakdemirli told Anadolu Agency's (AA) Editors' Desk in the capital Ankara. Over 11 million saplings were planted in more than 2,000 different localities across Turkey on Nov. 11 at 11:11 a.m. local time, as part of the "Breath for the Future" campaign launched by the ministry. Nov. 11 was declared National Forestation Day to be marked annually. The ministry planted the saplings on behalf of people who adopted them online as part of the massive forestation campaign. Pakdemirli added that the ministry itself plants nearly 300 million trees per year. The country has set a new world record for planting the most saplings in an hour, according to Guinness World Record officials, with 303,150 saplings ...