Turkey vows to plant 11M trees, eyes new world records

By Eda Fatma Topcu

ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkey is eyeing two world records by planting the highest number of saplings in an hour and creating its biggest digital photo album, the agriculture and forestry minister said Thursday.

On Nov. 11 at 11:11 a.m. local time (0811GMT), Turkey will plant 11 million saplings across the country in its biggest environmental festival to date.

Turkey wants to break Indonesia's record of planting 232,647 saplings in an hour, Bekir Pakdemirli told reporters in Istanbul.

Pakdemirli stressed that Turkey is a country which values the environment and nature the most by increasing its forestland from 2.8 million hectares to 22.6 million since 1999.

He added that the festival in the central province of Corum will be held under the auspices of the Turkish Presidency and will be attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

*Writing by Fahri Aksut