Nature Trust Malta is calling on the authorities to put the environment and social issues high on its agenda - at par with the economy - in the upcoming annual budget.

"In every past budget for at least 20 years, financial support for the environment was a poor exercise in whitewashing," the environmental NGO said on Monday.

"We want to see concrete results in the preservation of the few green open and protected spaces that remain. We want to see better air quality and sustainable means of transport, not more roads. We want to have better planning and not shabby and incongruous construction. Most of all, we demand a political will for proper law enforcement and action."

In a strongly-worded statement, Nature Trust said that Malta's natural environment has, for the past two decades, been neglected by every administration in power.

Financial support for the environment has been a poor exercise in whitewashing

Greed has taken over sustainable development interests and green open spaces have been taken up by over-development, it said.

"Air quality levels have gone down due to our politicians’ lack of vision and strategy on sustainable transport, village cores have been lost with trees chopped down for more roads and unsightly high-rise buildings. Moreover, law enforcement has always been and still remains little more than a joke when it comes to environmental laws in Malta."

The phrase ’sustainable development’ has been misused in every possible way, according to the NGO, which added that only the economy was put on a pedestal, completely forgetting the social and environmental dimensions.  

Nowadays, the few remaining green areas and Natura 2000 sites face a multitude of problems, including development pressures, pollution, illegal dumping and littering, off-roading, and squatters taking over some of the best natural areas as their own without any title, it added.

'All we are doing is helping Malta lose its charm'

The COVID-19 has brought the economy to its knees and while other countries are trying to develop new areas to attract eco and heritage tourism once the situation starts to return to normal, "all we are doing is helping Malta lose the charm it had with its beautiful characteristic buildings, intriguing landscapes and endemic and unique biodiversity".  

Even the diving industry, one of Malta's main tourism attractions was facing a lot of challenges through illegal fishing, the NGO said.

"Our marine ecology is left to fend for itself without any enforcement of protective laws and regulation and it is being heavily impacted by littering on the coast and at sea, coastal erosion and development, and degradation of the seabed."

The only green areas that are still struggling to maintain their beauty are those sites managed by NGOs, who give their all to save these sites and leave them to be enjoyed by current and future generations, often without any enforcement support from the authorities, Nature Trust reiterated.