What happened

Türkiye’s COP31 programme has featured the story of Turgut Ertop, a former TCDD track-maintenance chief who returned to Benliahmet station in Selim, Kars, for a documentary. Ertop and railway colleagues planted seedlings around the station in 1971; the planting area is now described by the Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Ministry as a forest.

Ertop was assigned to Benliahmet at age 28. He proposed establishing trees near the railway because harsh winters, wind and ice affected the route. According to the ministry’s account, his managers accepted the proposal.

Workers planted seedlings transported by wagon from the Amasya Forest Nursery. They prepared the planting locations and supplied water to the young trees, including by bringing an older pump building beside a stream back into operation. Ertop left the station in 1974.

He revisited the site 55 years after the first planting as part of the COP31 documentary. The ministry says the programme will also present accounts of relationships between people and nature.

Why it matters

The case shows how a local planting effort was conceived as a response to a defined operational exposure: wind and associated icing on a railway. It is being used in Türkiye’s COP31 communications as an example of a long-term outcome from work undertaken by railway staff.

For sustainability professionals following the next UN climate conference, the immediate point to note is that Türkiye is linking its host programme to examples of implementation as well as to the wider climate negotiations. The ministry describes COP31 as focused on moving climate commitments towards delivery.

COP31 context

Türkiye is due to host the 31st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Antalya from 9 to 20 November 2026. The ministry says delegates from 197 countries will update their approaches to tackling climate-change impacts.

Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum is named by the ministry as COP31 President. Readers tracking the conference should watch for further programme details and the development of the implementation agenda.

Source

This report is based on an announcement from Türkiye’s Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Ministry.