Court Stops Removal of Trees for Puglia Pipeline

The Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR) halted the uproot­ing of olive trees to make way for the con­tro­ver­sial Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The April 6 rul­ing over­turned the Italian government’s autho­riza­tion relo­ca­tion of the trees from a grove in Melendugno, Puglia.

TAR’s deci­sion to sus­pend the envi­ron­ment ministry’s per­mit blocks the uproot­ing of trees until at least April 19^th, when an appeal from Puglia’s regional gov­ern­ment against the per­mit will be heard.

We are doing every­thing in our power to ensure the already uprooted olive trees on the site remain safe and healthy.- Ulrike Andres, TAP External Affairs Director

The lat­est rul­ing is a fur­ther blow to the TAP project which had until the end of April to move the olive trees before their sea­sonal growth spurt begins; oth­er­wise or wait until September. The com­mence­ment of the pipeline has already been delayed by a year.

On March 7^th, a TAP spokesman told Reuters, ​“We’re going to start mov­ing the olives in a few days.” Around 33 trees were uprooted before pro­test­ers forced the work to cease.

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Ulrike Andres, com­mer­cial and exter­nal affairs direc­tor at TAP told Olive Oil Times, ​“TAP con­tin­ues to col­lab­o­rate with all the author­i­ties involved in the process to resume its activ­i­ties on the ground. Following the deci­sion of the Lazio TAR on 6 April, TAP tem­porar­ily halted the removal and trans­porta­tion of trees until 19 April, when the next hear­ing will be held.”

Andres added, ​“We are doing every­thing in our power to ensure the already uprooted olive trees on the site remain safe and healthy. TAP’s sched­ule is at risk if olive trees are not moved by end of April. TAP is hope­ful that it will move the olive trees by April and that it will deliver gas to Italy in 2020.”

The first sec­tion of the TAP requires the removal of 231 olive trees from the pipeline’s micro-tun­nel area. Sixteen of these trees are reg­is­tered as ​“mon­u­men­tal olive trees.” Andres told Olive Oil Times, ​“TAP is work­ing closely with the rel­e­vant regional author­i­ties to estab­lish the best way (with the least envi­ron­men­tal impact) to move these 16 mon­u­men­tal olive trees.”

A fur­ther 2,000 trees will be moved from the 8 km pipeline route and the total num­ber of olive trees to be moved could hit 10,000, if the Snnam sec­tion from the TAP pipeline receiv­ing ter­mi­nal to Brindisi is taken into account.

“It is impor­tant to high­light that the trees will be tem­porar­ily cared for in a nurs­ery area, and later planted in their orig­i­nal loca­tions,” Andres said.

The pipeline was orig­i­nally given the go-ahead by Rome in 2015 with the stip­u­la­tion that olive trees were to be trans­planted dur­ing the work and then returned to their orig­i­nal sites.

Andres said, ​“The Single Authorisation (SA) per­mit granted by the Ministry of Economy to TAP on 20 May 2015 remains legally valid and effec­tive, as stated in the same Decree of TAR Lazio.”

Local author­i­ties have fought for the pipeline to be rerouted to an indus­trial area to the north of the olive grove.

The €4.5‑billion pipeline is the final leg of the $40 bil­lion Southern Gas Corridor, which will trans­port Asian gas to Europe. The pipeline was sched­uled to deliver its first gas to Italy in 2020.

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• Reuters


• ANSA