Malta needs more trees

V Fenech

Oct 15th 2008, 20:08

Martinelliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, hawn kulhadd drak ta'!

I do sincerely hope that the government's attitude in parliament does not reflect the behaviour of this person. I do also sincerely hope that not all Nationalists are the same as Martinelli, at least my Nationalist friends are not of this type. They also comment about being disgusted by Martinelli's contributions.

He could not even accept the Opposition as a pressure group for more initiatives to continue going. Everybody knows about the Maghtab case who was supposed to start flourishing with a handful of half-dead trees planted before the election.

Albert Attard

Oct 11th 2008, 11:02

.......besides the planting of more trees in what is left of our little open spaces we still call country side, how about our architects and town planners provide more garden space in the Urban setting. Blocks of apartments with no greenery in sight seems to be the order of day, concrete pots with a few shrubs struggling to survive is no substitute.

Joseph E Briffa

Oct 11th 2008, 08:02

Vandalism is not something unique to Malta. The lower the standard of education in the country the greater the level of vandalism. Some people when disgruntled vent their spleen by vandalising trees. It is because of this human weakness that Foresta 2000 needs more protection. Vigilance is the word. I admit that this is not an easy thing; but rangers must be employed to look after this project, otherwise we risk going through the same process. The site should be properly fenced and armed rangers in sufficient numbers must be employed to keep poachers out . Funds have to be found to pay the rangers. This is the way it's done the world over; protected sites are always a target for poachers who have an interest to destroy the protected animals or plants or merely to vandalise the place.

R Vella

Oct 10th 2008, 18:29

@A. Caruana....I can assure you that thousands of liters of water were used daily (all from rain water) to irrigate the trees daily between May and Septmber. All you need to do is witness the survival rate, which even the Corpo Forestale dello Stato were impressed for such a long summer and dry period. My only lament is that a year and a half ago 4 years of hard work went down the drain because of the cowards who came at night and destroyed all our work.
By the way, BirdLife dreamt up the idea as a gift to the nation for the milenium and entered into a fruitful partnership with Din l- Art Helwa and PARK, a division of the Ministry for Rural Affairs and Environment. The thousands of people who helped to replant the area and increase the size of planting last October are witnesses to what the Maltese can and will do to see this project succeed.

Michael Fitzgibbons

Oct 10th 2008, 16:47

Mr Caruana said "Birdlife did not create Foresta 2000. The government Did"

The Foresta 2000 afforestation project was created and is managed by BirdLife Malta, DLH and the PARKS department of MRAE.

Mr Caruana said "Birdlife is supposedly looking after it [Foresta 2000]. Can they tell us how thousands of litres of water they used this summer. The last time looked the soil was like concrete?"

What has that got to do with planting trees on Malta? Now a much more interesting question would be to ask how much the FKNK (the Hunting and Trapping Federation) has contributed to the Foresta 2000 project?

I think we all know the answer to this question.

J Martinelli

Oct 10th 2008, 12:57

DR Brincat should have appealed to those senseless individuals who insist in damaging / stealing / destroying trees by the thousands.

Everyone knows that Malta needs more trees, in fact, thousands have been planted under various initiatives including '3 for U' and others.

Dr Brincat is simply stating the obvious and sounds as if only the MLP are interested in such an afforestation project.

Next time he takes a country stroll he should visit Ta Qali, Mellieha and other locales where tree planting has taken place long before Dr. Brincat came up with the good idea.

A. Caruana

Oct 10th 2008, 10:38

Michael Fitzgibbons

Birdlife did not create Foresta 2000. The government Did. Birdlife is supposedly looking after it.


Can they tell us how thousands of litres of water they used this summer ? The last time looked the the soil was like concrete.

H Dempster

Oct 10th 2008, 10:12

Mr Brincat, it is useless barking and asking for more trees to be planted. Dont you know that there is no money in the kitty.

Michael Fitzgibbons

Oct 10th 2008, 10:04

BirdLife Malta created Foresta 2000 as the organisation’s project for the new millennium. The aim was to recover an area and plant a Mediterranean forest that would become an attraction for both Maltese and foreigners wanting to explore and enjoy nature.

The woodland was to be established over a number of years, with a bush-type terrain with shrubs, such as Mediterranean buckthorn, myrtle and lentisk, and trees, such as Aleppo pine. A number of holm oaks were to be planted in the shade of existing trimmed blue wattle (acacia) found on site. These would eventually form the basis of the forest.

In the words of the outstandingly dedicated and courageous forest ranger in charge of Foresta 2000, Ray Vella, who recently was injured in the face after being shot by a poacher carrying a shotgun, "Shrubs had been beaten down with hoes; trees sawed off. This was a malicious and methodical attack on 65 tumoli of land which, in financial terms, set the project back some Lm30,000"

When this sort of wanton vandalism is perpetrated, when thousands of trees are destroyed, what future is there for trees in Malta?

C. Micallef

Oct 10th 2008, 09:35

DON'T SHAVE THE TREES PLEASE!

Planting many trees is still not enough. Many times I note how the poor trees are heavily pruned!! The more green leaves there are in trees, the more they remove CO2 from the air and the more they contribute to lessening the impact of climate change. To make matters worse, the branches that are cut off are made into logs and sold for fire-places, thus pulluting the air with more CO2 when they are burnt. I propose as well that we should plant EVERGREEN trees.