Turkey breaks world record of most sapling planted in 1 hour

By Muhammet Emin Horuz and Mustafa Calkaya

ANKARA (AA) - A Guinness World Record official on Tuesday announced Turkey has made a world record of planting most samplings in an hour.

“I hereby officially approve that the world record for most saplings planted in one hour belongs to [Turkey’s] Agriculture and Forestry Ministry from now onwards with 303,150 saplings,” Seyma Subasi Gemici told reporters on Tuesday.

The record came during the country’s massive tree-planting campaign on Monday in the hope of breath for the future in a greener Turkey.

In the central province of Corum, a group of people planted 303,150 saplings within an hour, beating Indonesia that held the world record with 232,647 saplings.

Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said there were preparations underway for another world record for “the largest online photo album of people planting saplings.”

“The [uploading] of the photos are still ongoing [...] I hope the results of it will also be registered by Guinness after the technical requirements are fulfilled,” Pakdemirli said.

The forestation campaign for a greener Turkey began with the declaration of Nov. 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.