The Church's Environment Commission and Nature Trust (Malta) have urged the organisers of Holy Week events not to use entire olive trees in their events.

"The olive tree is an ecologically and economically important indigenous tree which reaches maturity only after a couple of years. It provides us with an important resource: oil; besides playing an important role in our ecosystem and like other trees, contributes to improve air quality," the two organisations said in a joint statement.

"Our Islands already suffer from a lack of such trees and cutting them down should be openly discouraged especially by the Church. We feel that such holy celebrations should not be marred with irresponsible actions of those who fell olive trees just for the sake of adorning processional statutes for just a few days. This waste and insensitivity towards our natural resources is not consonant with the spirit of love and respect celebrated during Holy Week and certainly sets a wrong example."

They said that single branches or synthetic olive trees should be used.

"We also would like to suggest that during Palm Sunday, the practice of handing out olive leaves to the faithful should be carried out with due caution avoiding using massive amounts of such plant material."