One of the biggest gaming companies in Malta will be planting one tree on the islands for every employee the group employs globally.

Betsson Group donated €16,500 to the NGO Saġġar, which aims to plant one million native trees in Malta and Gozo over the next 13 years.

Jesper Svensson, Betsson CEO, told Times of Malta that this is a very important project since planting trees helps to combat climate change on a global scale.

“Malta doesn’t have a lot of trees so contributing to this initiative of planting one million trees is fantastic,” he said.

“We have been here a long time. We have a lot of Maltese working with us and we care a lot about the Maltese. All our employees were very happy with this initiative.”

Mr Svensson explained that while they normally give a small gift to each employee during Christmas time, this year they had decided to instead donate one tree on behalf of each one of their 1,650 employees across the globe.

“On a larger scale, we are committed to running a sustainable business and have introduced a new local community engagement strategy and several energy and water conservation initiatives as well as waste management measures,” he added.

So far, Saġġar has planted 2,850 trees and by the end of February they aim to have 80,000 seeds propagated in their nurseries.

The NGO was set up with the goal of sowing and planting a million trees of the native genotype and rehabilitating ecological reserves, public and private lands.

“We want to raise awareness about the environment and involve as many communities as possible,” said the co-founder of Saġġar, Steve Mercieca.

The money Betsson donated is to go to-wards the five nurseries, and the pots, compost, irrigation and other administration costs.

While the project depends largely on donations, the idea is it will become self-sustainable within the next three years once the trees grow, Mr Mercieca said.