A reform of regulations protecting trees has been approved by the Cabinet after lengthy discussions, government sources said.
The proposed reform of the trees and woodlands regulations were drafted by the Environment and Resources Authority earlier this year.
Few details of what is being proposed are known so far but the sources pointed out that a number of species would be added to the protected list, there would be harsher penalties and the introduction of the need for a licence in the case of significant pruning and uprooting.
The reform was expected to be published as a legal notice in the coming days, the sources indicated.
The planting of saplings does not make up for the destruction of large mature trees
More than 500 trees were uprooted this year. Environmentalist NGOs have called for an investigation into the removal of trees from various localities in recent months, saying the laws protecting trees needed to be bolstered urgently.
In recent weeks, the Times of Malta received numerous complaints about trees being either removed from towns and villages or plans to be uprooted to make way for new roads.
The Environment Ministry said that of the roughly 500 officially-uprooted trees in the first half of this year, about 300 had been transplanted elsewhere. Experts, however, have raised concerns about such a practice, warning transplants were often unsuccessful.
The ministry also said that developers had been asked to introduce more than 2,000 trees as “compensatory planting”.
Times of Malta reported last month that the 2001 Trees and Woodlands (Protection) Regulations had been changed in 2011 to make way for construction and roadworks.
The original regulations featured a list of about 54 species that could not be removed but, according to one of their drafters, the government had come under pressure from the construction industry and roadwork contractors’ lobby to relax the rules. The list of protected trees was chopped by half and some clauses were reworded.
A section of the original rules, protecting “all trees older than 50 years” irrespective of whether they were on the protected list or not, was removed entirely.
As for concerns about the dwindling number of trees on the island, the spokesman said the government expected to plant about 12,000 trees by the end of the year.
He pointed out that the ERA had recently doubled the amount of tree protection areas to 60 sites spread over the island and work was at an advanced stage on the identification of such additional zones. This, however, did not go down well with conservationists who argue that the planting of new saplings does not make up for the destruction of large mature trees.
ivan.martin@timesofmalta.com