[WATCH] Law for land expropriation in afforestation efforts underway

Government ministers will be presented with a law dealing with the requisition of land for the sake of afforestation in the coming weeks, Environment Minister Jose Herrera said.

The law which would target degraded land which is subject to enforcement orders due to industrial waste, is in its final stages of preparation before being taken to Parliament.

“I will be presenting a land recovery law in cabinet which I worked on together with the Lands Department,” Herrera told MaltaToday, explaining that almost 900 tumoli of land in Malta is degraded due to rubbish and waste resulting from development.

“We will be putting a law in place so that such areas could be subject to afforestation. If someone doesn’t want to do it, I will take it in my hands and do the afforestation myself,” he said.

The year for trees

“I am not being ironic when I say that this year is the year for trees, nor am I provoking those who are criticising the fact that some trees are being removed, though they may be just in doing so,” Herrera said, adding that he, too, is concerned about the issue.

“Sometimes.. This is what infrastructural development brings,” he said. “But this year will break the record with the amount of trees that will be planted.”

Herrera acknowledged that when trees are removed from an area, say to widen a road, the environment of that area is degraded, even though trees will be planted elsewhere. “It is fair criticism,” Herrera said.

For this reason, Herrera said that the ministry will try to plant new trees in the same areas where older ones were removed. “Perhaps in that respect we were lacking. But one learns from mistakes.”

“The time has come to make our cities green, because they are dry,” the minister said. “As soon as Ambjent Malta kicks off, I will direct it to focus on urban areas.”

Herrera said that the focus right now is on Natura2020 sites and natural capital – and the work is therefore not observed by a lot of people.