A judge has upheld arguments by environmental NGOs to challenge the agreement signed by the government with the hunters’ federation granting it guardianship of the Miżieb and Aħrax woodlands.
Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff ruled that the NGOs have the legal right to challenge the agreement signed by the Lands Authority and the Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK).
Hunters’ lobby FKNK was given management control of the Miżieb and Aħrax woodlands for three years last October against an annual token payment of €200 for each site.
The deal outraged environmentalists and civil society groups, who noted that the public would be denied access to the green areas for more than five months of the year, when hunting seasons are open.
The FKNK has insisted that the deal formalised an informal arrangement that had been in place for decades and argued that nothing has changed.
The signing was originally meant to take place on October 11 at Miżieb but had been brought forward when the plans were exposed, leading to backlash from civil society and outrage from the public.
Through the agreement, the two popular recreational areas for the Maltese public were granted to the FKNK to manage.
BirdLife Malta, Moviment Graffitti, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Friends of the Earth, Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar and Prof. Edward Mallia filed a case before the Administrative Review Tribunal at the end of October, just days before the sit-down protest held in front of Castille over the signing of this deal.
However, in January, the tribunal decided that the NGOs do not have juridical interest in the case as they did not qualify as aggrieved parties with the right to challenge the decision or take legal action in court.
The NGOs appealed this decision, arguing that as environmental organisations they were there to protect the environment and ensure that the public had unencumbered access to the land in question.
Presiding over the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Mintoff ruled that the environmental NGOs had every right to challenge the Lands Authority’s decision. The court annulled the tribunal’s decision and sent the case back to the tribunal to proceed with the case.
The NGOs and Mallia were represented by lawyer Claire Bonello.