The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has designated 30 sites in Malta, Gozo and Comino as Tree Protection Areas, offering the sites an added layer of protection.
The oldest trees in Malta are olive trees in Bidnija. This area is one of the 30 Tree Protection Areas in Malta, Gozo and Comino.The sites included in the list are not all new but now they have all been mapped on the authority's Geographical Information System and clearly defined with boundaries, the head of Mepa's Environment Protection Directorate, Petra Bianchi, said yesterday at a briefing on the exercise.
Malta, Gozo and Comino are home to about 60 species of trees, 77 per cent of which are defined as rare or threatened due to their small numbers in the wild.
The exercise, which took two years to conclude, was part of a process which started in 2001 and included a vast amount of research through old literature, including poems and newspaper cuttings, to shed light on various species of trees found in the Maltese islands.
The 30 sites include three new areas which were previously not on the list: Iċ-Ċagħaq, on the outskirts of Mġarr; Il-Wied tal-Fiddien and Ta' San Blas, both on the outskirts of Rabat, and Wied il-Faħam in Għargħur.
These sites were included because they contain representative types of Maltese woodland communities. Some of the sites are already protected as Nature 2000 sites . Two of them are in Comino and three are in Gozo.
Some of the trees found in the sites include specimens of the rare Mediterranean Buckthorn ( Alaternu), carob trees ( ħarrub), almonds ( lewż), hawthorns ( żagħrun) and large Mastic Trees ( deru).
A new tree protected area is close to San Blas Chapel in Rabat, which has numerous old English Elm trees. The site includes a copse of old olive trees, which from their trunk size are estimated to be at least centenarian in age.
The oldest trees in Malta are estimated to be 2,000 years old and are in an area in Bidnija. These olive trees seem to have been cut down in the past but grew again, said Darrin Stevens, the team leader at Mepa's Nature Protection Unit.
He said Mepa was now working on certifying the typical Maltese trees.