Stating that 150 thousand students will be able to reach saplings in 81 cities simultaneously with the project that will be planted saplings on behalf of 10 million students, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli said "10 million will be reached by the end of the year."
Pakdemirli talked in the program of planting sapling with the participation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Minister of Education Ziya Selçuk and that called "The Young Grow with Saplings" in the Forest of Haydar Aliyev.
Pakdemirli said environment is not the legacy that we received from our grandmas and grandpas, it is a legacy that we should leave our children. He indicated that lands having larger surface area than Konya province are lost every year due to global warming, erosion and desertification. Stating that they work with the inspiration got by President Erdoğan on trees and nature, Pakdemirli said they are implementing such projects in order to bring together children with the soil and water in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education.
Stating that they are talking about the spread of agriculture and forestry high schools with the Minister of National Education Ziya Selçuk, Pakdemirli said "The subject that agriculture, forest engineering and veterinarians become much more valuable are among our first choices. We will meet with the head of Higher Education Institutions (YÖK) next week. We will be looking for ways to make these engineering branches more valuable with all of the rectors and deans.
"WHILE THE FORESTS AROUND THE WORLD DECREASED BUT INCREASED IN TURKEY."
Pakdemirli said "We want students to get these habits when they are younger". He continued as follows:
"One of our most important tasks as Ministry increases forests of our country. We have taken important steps in afforestation works. While assets of forest decrease in the World, we have increased the assets of forest in Turkey. We became one of the rare countries that increased its forest asset. We have afforested 5 million hectares in the last 16 years. We accelerated the works of erosion control and improving the degraded forests. We planted 4 billion and 200 million saplings. While we had 16 billion trees in 2002, we have reached 22 billion trees today. Our target for 2023 is to reach 24.5 billion trees."
Stating that they provide 65 percent for afforestation activities of forest villagers up to 30 decares in income-generating species such as walnuts, almonds, pistachios and olives, Pakdemirli said "Hopefully, we will have completed the procedural works for the establishment of one national park and 11 nature parks in 2019. We aim to instil a love of nature and trees to our children with the Forest Houses Project. In recent years, we carried out great works on the afforestation of the public areas used by people by concentrating on social forestry. We have afforested 95 university campuses to date. We planted 14 million saplings on the roadside of 21 thousand kilometers. We planted 8.8 million saplings in 49 thousand school yards."
The Minister of Education Selcuk, took the floor and thanked the students who attended the ceremony because they read the Turkish National Anthem very good.
"WE HAVE PREPARED FOR THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS"
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli stated that they prepare the Project of "The Young Grow with Saplings" afforested simultaneously in the 81 provinces on behalf of elementary and middle school students for Guinness Book of Records.
After the program of "The Young Grow with Saplings" organized with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Forest of Haydar Aliyev, Pakdemirli answered the questions of journalists.
Stating that they want to have a project in the Guinness Book of Records, Pakdemirli said "We have a goal of planting a tree to every living person. We run very fast towards this goal. While we were running, we want to bring the students together with the soil, and we want the students to love soil, water and tree. In this sense, we prepared this project to enter in the Guinness Book of Records."
Minister of National Education Ziya Selçuk thanked Pakdemirli for the Project and continued as follows: "These trees stood somewhere but were not in the hands of our children. I would like to thank the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and all those who contributed to the Ministry of National Education by giving the trees in the hands of our children and bringing our children together with soil.
In the context of the ceremony, children in the primary and secondary school age were planted seedlings in 81 provinces while planting seedlings were started on behalf of 10 million students.
While primary school and secondary school children in 81 provinces were planting saplings simultaneously, the work on the planting of samplings was initiated on behalf of 10 million students.