Updated: Petition to save trees launched

(Adds government statement)

A petition calling on the authorities to stop the destruction of trees was launched at the Senglea promenade this morning.

The online petition, at http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-killing-trees-in-malta , is slightly different in that each time someone signs up, it will be sent to the inboxes of the Prime Minister, Ministers George Pullicino, Mario de Marco and Austin Gatt and the Environmental Landscape Consortium.

The petition says that in Malta an almost daily destruction of trees was being faced.

Beautiful trees were being uprooted due to misguided road embellishments or claims that that trees were dirty and caused bird droppings.

Supposedly-protected old gardens and their trees were under attack and often destroyed. Worse still, permit infringements and other environmental crimes are most often sanctioned.

The petition states that trees have been destroyed in Fgura, Zabbar, Cospicua, Luqa, Zebbug, Sliema and Mellieha. Another 2,000 in Salina, Kappara, Floriana and Senglea were now facing destruction.

The petition was launched by the Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar Tree Group, with Ramblers’ Association, NatureTrust Malta, Friends of the Earth (Malta), Malta Organic Agriculture Movement, Greenhouse, Youth for the Environment and Gozo University Group.

Astrid Vella and Antonio Anastasi said FAA was not against embellishment but against the removal of trees that would have been in place for over 50 years.

The people of Senglea, they said, had grown up with the 38 irreplaceable trees on the promenade which the government now wanted to remove to align the road.

These trees had withstood the wind, the sea and the scorching sun and only mature trees produced oxygen and absorbed CO2.

The trees the government originally suggested for the area produced toxic fruit and there was no expertise in Malta to move trees. So if an attempt was made to move them, they would die.

Resident Vincent Zammit, a general practitioner, suggested that a compromise should be sought to prevent the embellishment project from not materialising.

The government this morning said that trees at Senglea seafront had to be removed because of road alignment but they would be replanted a few metres away.

It said that in view of the concerns raised after the public consultation, it was decided to retain the existing trees along the Senglea waterfront, rather than replant them at Ta' Qali.

More than 115,000 indigenous trees planted

In a statement this afternoon, the government said that through the 34U campaign, more than 115,000 indigenous trees had been planted.

It said that an average of two million flowers and plants were also being planted at roundabouts and central strips each year for the country to look better and for the health benefit of children and families.

Most of the trees in the 34U campaign were planted at Ta’ Qali (more than 20,000), Salina (more than 12,000), Xrobb l-Għagin (more than 14,500), Magħtab  (around13,000), Mellieha (more than 11,000) and Marsaskala (close to 10,000).

Tree planting saw an increase in the number of recreational areas for children and families.

The government was also working to transform former rubbish dumbs into family parks.

It said that 93,500 trees, bushes and plants were planted in Gozo.