The plundering of monumental olive trees, with several centuries of life, some of which are even millennia old, ended up having, in the Terres de l’Ebre, a dimension of problem and being the vindication of an entire territory. Their low productivity, since over the years the trees produce less and less fruit, and their high price in nurseries, make monumental olive trees a very attractive tree for commercialization. Speculation and plunder.
The claim reached Parliament, which approved a law in June 2020 to protect monumental olive trees and expressly prohibit the extraction, transplanting and possession of already uprooted specimens, as well as commercial transactions.
The technicians of Acció Climàtica detected the existence of almost half a hundred monumental olive trees in two nurseries in Montsià. It was thanks to the collaboration of its owners. They exercised the right of trial and withdrawal provided for in the same law.
The law was approved in June 2020 in Parliament after more than 80,000 signatures were collected in a popular initiative. A lawyer from Tarragona, Paco Zapater, was its great advocate. The legislation urges nurseries and gardening companies that have monumental olive trees to notify the Generalitat. The penalties if not notified and sold range from 6,000 to 48,000 euros.
The legislation established that for two years the Catalan Government had the right of trial and retraction on these copies. As he has done now, in the first substantive application of the law, with the 48 olive trees that two Montsià nurseries “responsibly” communicated to the Generalitat that they were in possession, that is why they were immobilized, explains Jesús Gómez, territorial director of ‘ Climate Action in the Terres de l’Ebre.
These olive trees, which could not be sold but had already been uprooted, are being replanted in eight municipalities of Montsià (Godall, Santa Bàrbara, Amposta, Masdenverge, Alcanar, Freginals, Mas de Barberans and Ulldecona). The operation will be completed in February. The new location was agreed with each City Council, “respecting the characteristics of the olive trees with the desire to dignify them”. It was clear that they were not going to stop, for example, at any roundabout.
Acció Climàtica paid, for the acquisition of the 48 olive trees, estimated to be between 500 and 1,200 years old, a total of 644,100 euros, relocation and replanting aside. Each olive tree, appraised one by one, cost an average of 13,418 euros. The nurseries have come to pay more than 20,000 euros for a single thousand-year-old olive tree, almost all bought by individuals to decorate the gardens of villas. The Government does not foresee any further purchases.
According to the law that protects olive trees in Catalonia, those with a trunk circumference of at least 350 centimeters are considered monumental, after 350 years of life. You have to keep them where they took root. Everything to stop the disappearance of an enormous natural, agricultural and cultural heritage.
