An environmental leap forward

The best green news for me was last November when Prime Minister Robert Abela announced that Manoel Island, White Rocks and Fort Campbell will be turned into three new national parks after inviting ideas from children, NGOs, experts and the public on how the areas should be developed into green, open spaces for everyone to enjoy.

To date, Ta’ Qali National Park and Il-Majjistral Nature and History Park are the only two officially designated national parks under a conservation framework.

Yet, what should a ‘national park’ consist of?

Protecting natural processes across large areas is a key priority in a national park, consisting of large, representative natural areas with significant landscapes, biodiversity and cultural heritage that are protected from human exploitation.

It is an area designated for scientific, educational and recreational purposes, with a primary focus on conserving nature and its processes while allowing public access under specific conditions.

Any national park should incorporate at least four different aspects: the natural landscape and ecosystem, its biodiversity, any geomorphological sites, that is to say, an area with unique geological features that are of scientific, educational, or aesthetic interest, and its cultural heritage, consisting of preserving the cultural richness and character of the area, which can include both natural and human-influenced landscapes.

Let’s begin with Manoel Island.

Manoel Island had deteriorated due to neglect, World War II damage and vandalism, which caused heritage buildings like Fort Manoel and the Lazzaretto to fall into disrepair. The fort suffered direct hits during the war and subsequent neglect while the Lazzaretto, a former quarantine hospital, was damaged by bombing and abandonment. The island became a derelict area, with buildings suffering from structural damage, collapsed roofs and plundered original features before large-scale restoration efforts began in 2001.

Former prime minister Alfred Sant had originally approved the MIDI project, which was to involve large-scale construction on Sliema and Manoel Island, despite later accepting that it was one of his worst political decisions.

Moving on to the White Rocks, often referred to as the ghost complex, today it is an abandoned set of buildings that has been damaged due to natural causes but mainly by vandalism. It was built by the British in the 1960s as the St Patrick’s Officers Married Quarters. After the British military left in 1979, the site was handed over to the Maltese government and, eventually, became the White Rocks Holiday Complex before being vacated in the 1990s.

It has since fallen into disrepair and has been the subject of numerous failed development proposals over the years but is now thankfully slated for transformation into a national public park, with plans to preserve the original British-era barracks.

Fort Campbell, also known as Il-Fortizza ta’ Selmun, is a former British colonial-era structure of historical significance but which has been abandoned and fallen into ruins through theft and vandalism for years.

Built just before World War II, the fort emerged unscathed from enemy action only to be gradually destroyed by human neglect and the elements after it was decommissioned.

Law enforcement will be fundamental to better park management- Mark Said

These three new, relatively large national park areas, provided the whole idea and project are thoughtfully and professionally worked out, have the potential to become like nature’s greatest hits, combining stunning scenery with vital roles in conservation, education and recreation.

We can envisage them not just as pretty places but as living museums of ecosystems and cultural heritage, giving visitors a front-row seat to the wonders of the natural world and a chance to step back in time.

Challenges to achieving these goals, however, exist.

Effective and sustainable national park management requires a nationally based organisational framework with deference to local institutions at the park level, stakeholder inclusion in park management decision-making, public engagement encouraged by information-sharing and education and clarity on boundaries to improve relations with adjacent landowners.

Malta has rapidly been losing biodiversity through the degradation of ecosystems directly linked to land use change, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, pollution and the invasion of alien species.

National parks are a key approach to ecological conservation efforts; they are recognised as the most important way to protect species in their natural habitats.

With a growing national concern for ecosystem degradation, coupled with a developing public interest in the recreational value of natural landscapes, national parks are widely regarded as the ultimate opportunity to support tourism while preserving ecosystem integrity.

The bigger economic activity issue for these two new national parks appears to be the development of facilities and visitor infrastructure. Maintaining park integrity while accommodating visitors (the numbers of who will increase every year) appears to be the main development challenge.

Managing for this issue most commonly will involve returning to management plans for guidance, as well as using other existing land designations to trade off with the development and construction industries and push facilities and degradation outside park boundaries.

Land use planning in these national parks will come down mainly to zoning in order to designate areas for visitor recreation and restricted areas for protection and restoration.

Finally, law enforcement will be fundamental to better park management, which can only be achieved through the presence of law enforcers, as well as educating the public on appropriate behaviours.

Manoel Island and the White Rocks can provide an excellent opportunity for being recognised as the gold standard for conservation.

In this era of climate change, the extinction crisis  and a growing population, we need to act on this opportunity before it is too late.

Mark Said is a lawyer.