Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) have filed a warrant of prohibitory injunction in the Gozo Court in a bid to stop the uprooting of trees as part of an EU-funded embellishment project in It-Tokk, Victoria.
At a press conference held in front of the offices of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, FAA coordinator Astrid Vella expressed concern about the continued destruction of trees, particularly in Gozo, and noted that two embellishment projects – in Victoria and in Nadur – foresaw the removal of existing trees.
She pointed out that FAA has offered to bring a British arborist in order to find a solution to any problems which the trees may be causing. Both the Victoria and Nadur local councils had acknowledged the offer, and it was understood that both would wait for the expert to arrive in the first week of December.
However, the Victoria local council appears to have had second thoughts, and the NGO chose to embark on legal action after being informed that MEPA is set to approve the removal of trees in Victoria. The trees in question, Ms Vella pointed out, were more than 50 years old, adding that while existing laws were weak, the trees’ removal would still be in breach of them.
Ms Vella noted that in spite of international obligations, Maltese law hindered access to environmental justice, noting how when an injunction had been obtained on the redevelopment of the Hilton Hotel in the 1990s, the law was changed to prevent anyone without a direct juridical interest from taking such action.
As a result, she pointed out, the law prevented environmentalists from acting in the national interest. In fact, she added, FAA could only file the warrant after persuading a Victoria resident to get involved.
Ms Vella also warned that the FAA was willing to take further action if necessary, including filing a complaint with the European Commission.
The press conference was also addressed by former MEPA environment directorate official Alfred Baldacchino and Anna Spiteri, who had both formed part of an ad hoc working group set up to safeguard trees by Environment Minister Leo Brincat in May 2013, with the aim of improving on a legal notice which Mr Brincat described as “weak.”
Ms Spiteri remarked that back then, the minister had maintained that if the working group finished its work on the legal notice by August 2013, he would then present the amendments in cabinet.
But Mr Brincat did not follow through, and Ms Spiteri observed that whenever she reminded him, he would simply reply by stating that the group was only a consultative committee which had no say.
On her part, Ms Vella had maintained that while the Environment Ministry started strongly when it came to the protection of trees, it soon lost steam.
Mr Baldacchino, who held a small sign displaying the Labour Party’s electoral pledge to “continually safeguard existing trees in Maltese cities and towns and to incentivise the planting of other trees, particularly indigenous ones,” stressed that the removal of trees in Victoria and Nadur would signify that the government had lost its environmental vision.
This article originally appeared in the Malta Independent on 15 November, 2014.
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