'Enhanced militancy' from environmental groups, residents and councils may be the only way to save Malta's land from overdevelopment, the Church's environment commission has said.

In a statement calling for the protection of agricultural land and open spaces, it blamed the lack of political will to change policies that were designed to "serve narrow interests" rather than the common good.

“This lack of action to review current policies seems to indicate that perhaps the only effective way to save the Maltese environment is through enhanced militancy from environmental groups, groups of local residents and local councils," it said.

“It is only when public protests are held that some action is taken."

Recent public protests against planned developments, such as the planned Marsascala marina and the American University of Malta campus at Zonqor point, helped to reverse the projects.

A protest against plans to develop a marina at Marsascala. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Farmers and residents of Mġarr are currently protesting a proposal to develop a solar farm that will take up the area of around six football pitches of agricultural land. 

The commission said decisive action should be taken for the country to shift towards renewable sources of energy but this should not be done at the expense of agriculture.

“Both the harnessing of renewable sources of energy and the preservation of agricultural land are of national importance," the commission said."They are not mutually exclusive."

The war against Ukraine, it said, has brought to the fore the importance of being less reliant on fossil fuels and the importance of agricultural activity that feed populations. 

National plans and commitments to make the shift to renewable energy should be reviewed and implemented, it said.

'Special protection status'

It called on the authorities to grant agricultural land “a special protection status as a strategic resource” and to protect farmers from evictions from the land that they tilled. 

In this context, infrastructural projects had to be reassessed to avoid the take-up of agricultural land, it said.

The commission also appealed to the authorities to ensure that there is no abuse of national or EU funds by those who may register themselves as part-time farmers to be eligible for such funding, making such funding unavailable to the really deserving bona fide part-time and full-time farmers.

“The careful consideration of the common good in drafting or reviewing plans and policies seems to be missing and the few, who have better access to the authorities, seem to have the upper hand in policy-making,” it noted.

It appealed to the authorities to:

• Publish the revision of the rural policy and design guidance 2014, which revision ended in August 2020.

Since then, the commission said, more buildings were given permission to be set up outside development zones on the basis of the existence of ruins in the countryside.

• Revise the development control design policy, guidance and standards 2015 which it said is wreaking havoc on Gozo’s ridges.
• Protect open spaces in urban areas. It said the creation of the much-needed open spaces in urban areas cannot be hijacked by the presence of kiosks, areas for tables and chairs, or even by the provision of overground parking spaces.

The commission said the creation of catering or commercial establishments alongside promenades, blocking sea views in already densely populated areas, did not fit into the idea of creating open spaces in urban areas.