Expand and target urban tree canopy on the hottest, lowest-canopy streets

Location

Çorum, Türkiye40.5500, 34.9600

Description

On 11 November 2019, the Government of Türkiye planted 11 million saplings in a single day, setting a Guinness world record (most trees planted in one hour at the Çorum site), executed largely by volunteer planters. Within months, field checks by the forestry union Tarim Orman-Is (chair Sukru Durmus) found roughly 90% of the saplings dead, citing wrong planting season, drought, and inexperienced volunteers. The government disputed this, claiming 95% survival; no independent audit was conducted. The episode is widely cited as the canonical failure of count-driven mass planting: a programme optimised for a one-day number rather than multi-year survival. For urban canopy programmes, the relevant contrast is stewardship-driven planting where aftercare (watering, protection, replacement) is budgeted across the establishment years from the outset.

Metrics

2

Saplings planted in one day11,000,000saplings

Sapling survival rate (union field checks, months post-planting)11,000,000 planted~10% surviving (90% dead per union; contested — government claimed 95% healthy; no independent audit conducted)

Funding

Government of Türkiye

Lessons learned

Survival rate, not planting count, is the operative metric; budget multi-year aftercare (watering, establishment, replacement) before planting begins — the Türkiye campaign had no funded aftercare phase.
Build independent survival audits into any mass-planting programme contract; without them, contested claims between government and union spokespeople cannot be resolved and credibility collapses on all sides.
Season-appropriate timing, correct species selection, and trained planters are prerequisites; substituting volunteer volume for these factors was a direct cause cited in the Türkiye die-off.

Documented Jul 24, 2026

Arnaud Gissinger