A looming election emboldens voters, with some of the most brazen requests surfacing during the run-up to voting day.

The motorsports track, which has been pledged by the government for enthusiasts within the confines of the Ħal Far industrial park, has been described by advocates as having a relatively low environmental impact given that it will be largely sited on committed or degraded land. So much so that those of us who have been vehemently opposing the track on environmental grounds have largely sat this out, mainly due to these claims that the track would not take up new land.

In an unexpected twist, however, it has transpired through an article published in this newspaper last Sunday that the allocation of a land at Ħal Far for the motorsports track has triggered a domino effect, given that the existing facilities of the Ħal Far Model Aircraft Association had to be relocated to a new site.

This new site, it emerges, has already been identified and it spills out on swathes of garrigue and farmland, skirting existing factories, Wied Żnuber valley as well as a Natura 2000 site (a specially-protected area – SPA) extending from Wied Moqbol to Bengħajsa (MT 00033), designated by virtue of a number of important bird species (the Yelkouan shearwater and the Scopoli’s shearwater).

Advocates of the project downplay the negative environmental impact it will exert and are quick to underscore the current status of the site in question, which is included within the confines of the Ħal Far industrial area, stressing that it will be mainly disturbed land that will be levelled.

Such a statement is a distortion of the situation on the ground, given that dense garrigue alternates with tilled land within the site, as can be amply testified through the photo accompanying this column as well as through an aerial overview of the area.

A broad-brush ecological survey of the ‘disturbed ground’ to be levelled has determined the presence of a number of indigenous terrestrial mammals, bird and reptile species of conservation importance, including different species of snakes, wild rabbits, weasels, hedgehogs and the blue rock thrush (merill), besides the pockets of agricultural land being tilled and the occurrence of carob and lentisk trees.

Lizards? Geckos? Snakes? Weasels? These are all expendable, especially in the run-up to a looming election- Alan Deidun

Not that this will cut much ice with policymakers given that the supposedly green revolution that our country is passing through seems limited only to landscaped and manicured public spaces and renewable energy facilities, with the loss of garrigue and farmland probably being deemed as par for the course in return for the electoral votes it will help preserve.

Conveniently, developments within areas managed by INDIS (Industrial Innovative Solutions; formerly, Malta Industrial Parks) are exempt from fully-fledged environment impact assessment (EIA) scrutiny; this might explain the anomalous silence of the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) on the matter, despite the significant ecological impact of the proposed development.

Truth be told, the proposed development will not, at least on paper, impinge on the footprint of the abutting Natura 2000 site but it will definitely rub shoulders with it.

The cluttering of areas contiguous to Natura 2000 sites raises the legitimate question: what happened to the principle of buffer zones?

How are ecologically important zones expected to reach their conservation and management goals if human activities of all kinds are permitted right next door? How can the ERA tolerate a further encroachment towards the cliffs without any form of EIA study being commissioned?

Besides lying cheek and jowl with the Natura 2000 in question, the proposed extension will be sited just 120m from the cliffs along its western extremity and just 160m along its eastern extremity, obliterating a sizeable buffer of undeveloped land and resulting in the further hemming in of the protected site to a narrow strip of land along the cliff edge.

Even the Neolithic dolmen sited within the land in question is, at least on paper, safeguarded through a buffer zone, as stipulated through a public notice issued by the then MEPA on December 22, 2009. Will this buffer zone be eliminated as well?

Besides Birdlife Malta and Graffitti, the only entity to voice its concerns about the proposed relocation has been the Birżebbuġa local council, given that both the PN and the PL have failed to make any statements, possibly out of fear of ruffling the feathers of model plane enthusiasts. In a context where every single vote counts, simple arithmetic dominates over any other consideration.

Three farmers tilling the land in question, which will be levelled so as to make way for model aircraft association’s facilities, pale in terms of numbers with respect to the thousands of local motorsports enthusiasts and to the tens or even hundreds of model aircraft ones. Lizards? Geckos? Snakes? Weasels? These are all expendable, especially in the run-up to a looming election.

In the same vein, the relocation of three farmers from their land won’t upset too many carts and this speaks volumes about the priorities on these islands, with the flying of model aircraft trumping over the production of food, farmers’ livelihoods and the conservation of natural areas. Political statements in support of the environment and farming ring ever so hollow.