Türkiye continues its forestation drive in the third year since it officially declared Nov. 11 as National Forestation Day.
Bekir Karacabey, head of the Directorate of Forestry, stated that by 2023, "We would have achieved more than our aim of 7 billion seedlings." In the last 20 years, according to Karacabey, "6 billion saplings have been planted; in 2023, we'll have more than our target of 7 billion saplings. While the damage caused by last year's forest fires is still being repaired, some 80% of the region has been renewed as of September and the rest is still undergoing restoration, all of which will be finished by year's end."
He also evaluated the forest assets, sapling production and afforestation activities for Forestation Day, expressing that Türkiye is one of the rare countries that has steadily increased its forest assets in recent years. Additionally, the country has increased its forested area by 2.1 million hectares and has reached over 22 million hectares from its 20.8 million hectares 20 years ago.
The Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) published by the United Nations every five years ranked Türkiye's forest assets 46th in 2015, but they later rose to 27th in 2020. "We are the first in Europe and sixth in the world in terms of countries that increase the forest existence in the world. We stand as first in Europe and fourth in the world in the ranking of the countries that make the most forestation," he said.
"Only this year, our target was 600 million, but the number of saplings planted reached 603 million. This increase puts our country ahead of other countries in terms of forest assets," he added.
It is important to note that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's "afforestation mobilization" campaign has a goal of planting 7 billion seedlings by the year 2023. While 6 billion saplings have been planted over the last 20 years, our goal of 7 billion seedlings will likely be surpassed by 2023, he pointed out.
Karacabey estimates that of the approximately 108,000 hectares to be worked on, 69,300 hectares will be naturally replenished and 38,700 hectares revitalized through reforestation and rehabilitation.
About 500 million healthy seeds planted for reinforcement purposes grew into saplings last year, and about 25 million saplings were planted in areas damaged by wildfires.
According to the studies conducted this year, almost 255 million saplings were produced, and exports now exceed our imports, he asserted.
Karacabey emphasized that, "The needs of the private sector for substrate and intermediate products have been addressed, in addition to the production of saplings for use in afforestation, erosion control, artificial rejuvenation, rehabilitation and medical aromatic project domains."
"According to the evaluation, there are 138 forest nurseries under the general directorate, and we satisfy all of the seedling requirements from our own nurseries," he said. "More than 1,000 different types of saplings are grown currently, compared to 400 types in 2002. We have a roughly 500 million output capacity. We conduct our sapling production activities in accordance with our afforestation, erosion management and industrial plantation initiatives."