Türkiye's forests grow by nearly 5M acres in 2 decades, says president

By Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye's forestland has grown by over 2 million hectares (over 4.9 million acres) over the past two decades, according to the country's president on Friday.

"I celebrate the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, which aims to raise awareness in order to leave a more livable environment for future generations," Recep Tayyip Erdogan tweeted about the day that is marked annually on June 17 across the world.

An image he shared along with the tweet showed that 5.9 billion saplings had been planted in the last 20 years, with forests now covering an area of 23.1 million hectares, up from 20.8 million hectares in 2002.

Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas. According to the UN, it is caused primarily by human activities and climatic variations.

Observed on June 17 each year, the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is a UN observance day that focuses on changing public attitudes toward the leading driver of desertification and land degradation.