MEPA proposes strategy to protect countryside

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority yesterday issued a draft strategy aimed at conserving and improving the country's rural environment over the next 20 years.

The Rural Strategy Topic Paper - Draft for Public Consultation, which forms part of the review of the Structure Plan, proposes to classify and manage rural areas according to their importance and the risks they face.

Under the strategy, the countryside would be protected from inappropriate uses, 'green gaps' would be designated between urban areas located close to each other, and the informal recreational use of these green gaps would be promoted.

Among the other measures proposed is afforestation projects, particularly near congested urban areas; the safeguarding of public access to the countryside; the management of key areas popular for countryside recreation; and the protection of agricultural land and soil.

The paper also stresses the need for more cooperation among agencies, effective enforcement, the promotion of environmental initiatives and the re-use of buildings found in rural areas.

Details of the paper were presented at a news conference at the MEPA offices in Floriana yesterday.

The paper can be viewed at the MEPA or seen on the website www.mepa.org.mt. Public consultation on the paper will be held during September.

MEPA director Godwin Cassar said the paper was meant to shed light on how to contain the urban sprawl and exert stricter control on certain developments in the countryside.

It had taken the MEPA 10 years to review the Structure Plan. Ideally, he said, the changes should be effected more frequently but one also had to bear in mind what was happening on the ground.

Basing their findings on various sources, particularly the National Statistics Office, the compilers of the 200-page paper present an extremely detailed snapshot of the situation in the rural sector. Land-uses are analysed and sources of conflict between different activities identified.

The paper says that natural habitats cover only a small proportion of the islands' surface area, with agriculture the major land-use.

Around 3.5 per cent of rural areas is built up, and there are over 100 quarries covering more than 2.6 kilometres of land.

During the past 30 years, 4,462 hectares of agricultural land were lost to development. However, the average annual loss has decreased from 213 hectares annually between 1971 and 1986 to 84 hectares annually between 1986 and last year. The amount now registered with the Agriculture Department is 10,738 hectares.

Over 90 per cent of the 11,400 registered farmers are part-timers, with most of them concentrated in the western and northern parts of the island.

The paper spells out the problems that the agricultural sector is facing. For example, only 179 out of 8,957 hectares of agricultural land in Malta is irrigated while in Gozo the figure is of only 89 out of 1,782 hectares.

The scarcity of water is compounded by the fact that the salinity levels in the water distributed from the Sant' Antnin Sewage Treatment Plant has increased to unacceptable levels.

While agriculture is very important to rural conservation, the numerous livestock farms and unsustainable agricultural practises often harm the environment, the paper says.

On the plus side, the increasing popularity of vine growing could lead to the rehabilitation of abandoned fields.

Dr Cassar said that vine growing required official policies which at present were non-existent.

The paper also stresses the need to manage the informal recreation that takes place in the countryside in order to prevent the degradation of natural and heritage resources.

It says that while the MEPA's scheduling process has restricted development in sensitive areas, there have been few initiatives to restore or better manage the natural environment and landscape. Furthermore, various buildings of heritage lie "abandoned" or have been insensitively modified.

The paper admits that although the Structure Plan prohibited further urban development outside the development zone, new industrial and residential development did take place, with permits, even though some applications were recommended for refusal by the Planning Directorate.

The paper, rather surprisingly, does not refer to golf courses. Dr Cassar said that this question had been tackled in two other topic papers issued by MEPA, one dealing with tourism and the other with leisure.

"These papers and the Rural Strategy Topic Paper overlap and golf courses are a peripheral issue," Dr Cassar said.