Numbers of towns in Spain, especially in the Valencia region, are moving to protect one of their oldest resources: olive trees planted as long ago as the Roman occupation over 2000 years ago.
Ancient olive trees have had a vogue as a luxury item for the wealthy. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them have been dug up and moved in recent years. They can sell for anywhere from hundreds of Euros to as high as €60,000. But to locals who have become concerned, taking them away from their native soil "is like taking a cathedral and putting it somewhere else."
César-Javier Palacios, spokesman for the Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente environmental foundation has gotten 154,000 signatures on a petition on change.org, "against the plundering of old olive trees."
Olives aren't native to Spain; the Roman and Greek colonizers of millenia ago brought them from the Eastern Mediterranean. Researchers have counted about 260 varieties in Spain, some represented by single specimen. For a longer and well-illustrated article from TheLocal.es, click HERE
Above: a Spanish olive tree, over 1000 years old, moved to the Pont du Gard in France in 1985.
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