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Plan to save 200-year-old fir from being Vatican's Christmas tree
The Guardian
|November 13, 2024
Environmental activists in Italy's northern Trentino province have started a campaign to stop the felling of a 200-year-old fir tree intended to form the centrepiece of the Vatican's Christmas decorations.
The so-called Green Giant is 29 metres tall and is due to be chopped down next week in a forest in the Ledro valley before being transported to St Peter's Square in Vatican City.
Every year, a fir is donated to the Vatican from somewhere in Europe.
But environmental associations in Trentino are determined to foil this year's plan. They have written an open letter to Pope Francis asking him to stop the "useless sacrifice".
More than 40,000 people have signed a petition, and residents in Ledro, a town with a population of about 600, are reportedly planning a roadblock protest to prevent the tree's passage to Rome.
This story is from the November 13, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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