Malta's magnificent Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery is so much more than a cemetery. With so many old trees, most over 150 years old, it is the 'lung' of a highly urbanised area and one of our few man-made forests.
The cemetery's tree species are either indigenous (naturally occurring locally) or archaeophytic (introduced in ancient times). Some of the oldest trees are about four or five storeys high.
The species here include Aleppo pine, Italian cypress, evergreen oak, carobs, olives and bay laurels. Other botanic species include native shrubs such as the Mediterranean buckthorn and the Sicilian snapdragon.
The amount of trees in one locality is significant because it attracts other species of wildlife, and, if left in peace, faunal species will settle and this forest-like habitat will become an ideal place where they can thrive. Birds are among the first to colonise and they are the most abundant species inhabiting this cemetery.
In autumn, migrating birds of prey (kestrels, hawks, buzzards) find the Addolorata a nice place to rest before they continue on their long journey south.
Many songbirds also visit this cemetery, such as black redstarts, chaffinches and other finch species, sparrows, robins and so on. The white wagtail is often seen walking on the cemetery floor searching for food, while the spotted fly-catcher has found this cemetery an ideal place to raise its young. Collard doves attempt to colonise this area each year without being given a chance.
Small mammals and reptiles also find refuge here, especially in crevices of walls, cribs and tombs. Insects and other invertebrates are an important source of food for birds, reptiles and mammals.
What makes such a cemetery unique is the amount of trees that cover it, sustaining such ecosystems, and also the architectural beauty of cribs that lie peacefully under their protection. Unless these trees are protected, all the rest will perish with them.
This place has to be safeguarded in different ways. Although there seems to be little vandalism of tombstones, the destruction of wildlife here seems endless, even though every public garden and cemetery in Malta is legally protected against such activities.
Yet each year a good number of bird species are disturbed in various ways. Wild vegetation is mostly pruned savagely and uncautiously; if a particular flora is destroyed, other species of fauna go with it.
Also the newly built extension to the cemetery is a complete disaster. I hope that the new graves and the area hosting them do not follow the same pattern.
If the new parts are left as they are, some indigenous trees should be planted to cover this area, which looks more like a landfill, and so create an environment similar to that of the old part. Otherwise, it will never hold the characteristics of the entire cemetery together.
We hope that whoever will be appointed responsible for its maintenance will not destroy the vegetation growing along the sides supporting beautiful natural flowers (not having only dead ones in jars) and severely prune those majestic trees. It is illegal to prune tree species which are protected also because of their old age.