The Church’s Environmental Commission has urged parishes to be conservative in their use of olive tree branches during Holy Week celebrations.

Traditionally, palm leaves or olive tree branches are distributed among churchgoers on Palm Sunday, in remembrance of Jesus’s triumphant entrance in Jerusalem. Statues representing salient episodes in the Passion of Our Lord, displayed in several churches across the island, are also decorated with olive trees.

The commission warned against the exaggerated use of such plants, especially that of the indigenous olive tree.

Chopping off whole trees to be used on Good Friday procession statues should be avoided at all costs, it said.