Despite the several criticisms of trees being uprooted and construction causing pollution and over-urbanisation of Malta, Infrastructure Malta believe that overall, the projects result in a greater sustainable impact on the environment. With their projects monitored by expert arborists alongside the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA), it is estimated that 28 trees for every tree uprooted are planted by IM, going well above ERA’s minimum recommendations.
The Central Link Project is set to reduce air pollution considerably in its surrounding areas and should add 212% more landscaped areas and at least 333 more trees than are currently present. A nationwide tree-planting programme was kicked off by IM during summer 2019, seeing the planting of 31,417 trees and 19,723 shrubs in total. Conversely, 1,100 trees were uprooted due to IM projects since 2019. 568 other transplantable trees were relocated to nearby areas. 2020 saw the exceeded planting of 11,213 trees in 93 different locations.
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Photo Source: Ian Borg FB