FAA said today it was saddened and shocked by a recommendation by the Department of Agriculture and the Heritage Advisory Committee of MEPA in favour of the chopping down of an enormous old Awrikarja tree in a Manwel Dimech Street garden. The tree is one of the last natural landmarks in Sliema but it is to make way for apartments, the group said.

The application for the development to encroach on a large garden in the Urban Conservation area (UCA) of Sliema is recommended for approval by MEPA next Wednesday.

FAA said MEPA can take measures to protect individual or groups of trees through scheduling and if necessary issue a Tree Preservation Order.

“However not only with this tree, protected due to its great age, but every other application to fell a protected tree that we know of, these regulations have been ignored and permission issued for the felling in order to make way for further development,” the NGO claimed.

It said the Department of Agriculture was continuously giving the green light for protected trees to be cut down on the pretext of compensatory planting of other trees.

“This is acting as an incentive to chop down any beautiful old tree because it has been made so easy to plant a few saplings elsewhere. Such trees end up far away from the original one and as a result the people of that locality would not draw any benefit. Furthermore, the developer is not bound to take care of the saplings and there is therefore no guarantee that they will reach maturation, thus destroying the whole scope of compensatory planting.”