The environment as an economic resource

A small overpopulated island with a relatively large tourism industry, Malta will always face tensions between those who want to see more development of the land, and those who fear that this very development will ultimately undermine the health of our fragile environment. Such an environment needs to be attractive as much to the visitors who pay to visit us, as to us since our quality of life partly also depends on our surroundings.

Recent changes to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority regulations may mark a significant improvement in the way we manage our environment, but I do not blame those who are reserving judgment on these changes until they see whether our environment will indeed be protected. Unfortunately, four decades of neglect, abuse and exploitation of the environment is the heritage of different generations of Maltese politicians of different political beliefs.

Quite honestly, I see little that gives me hope that this is about to change. We seem to indulge in an incestuous love affair with the overdevelopment of property. Many of our politicians earnestly believe that when the economy slows down all we need to do is prime the property industry to kickstart economic activity. The result is that we now have about 50,000 unutilised houses waiting for occupiers.

A strong lobby of a few politicians, big and small time property developers, bankers, property brokers, architects, contractors and suppliers of building materials constantly try to silence the voice of conscience of Maltese society. This voice is expressed through various groups of citizens that share a concern about our deteriorating environment.

The big, and not so big, fat cats that thrive on over-development ridicule the passionate way that lovers of the environment go about sensitising the conscience of our society that has largely been comatose on environmental issues for decades. Ignorance, greed, egoism are behind the insensitivity to environmental issues of a large part on Maltese society.

The environment is a valuable economic resource. London's The Sunday Times recently commented that many tourists label Malta as 'an ugly Mediterranean island.' And yet we keep flogging the hopeless idea of attracting big spenders to Malta who will ensure that our economy grows despite being told by those who really love Malta that we are ruining our islands' beauty. A fallacious mindset makes some believe that we can encroach even more on what is left of our countryside to develop even more property.

We coin creative sound bites that encapsulate our distorted vision. In the 1980s and 1990s we were told that Malta is planning to move one step higher in the economic ladder by promoting 'upmarket tourism'. If the South of France, the Emerald Coast and some of the Caribbean islands have succeeded in this type of tourism, why can't we?

Now we have re-branded the kind of tourism we dream about by calling it 'niche tourism'. We dream of attracting the wealthy financiers, lawyers and other professionals who work hard in northern European cities by selling them luxury apartments in tourist ghettos. We spare no expense to produce glossy promotional brochures that highlight the internal beauty of these apartments, but hide the abject ugliness of the external surroundings.

The most environment-friendly regulations will not be worth the paper they are written on unless there is the political will to make them effective.

One hopes that political patronage, short-term electoral expediency, and pure and simple greed do not continue to undermine people's trust in politics. We need to support those politicians who go against the grain of their party's thinking and promote effective pro-environment political action, rather than rhetorical waffle.

Environment lovers go beyond the tree-hugging middle-aged baby boomers who nurture a nostalgia for the 1960s and the idealism that characterised their youth. Many who are worried about the seemingly accelerating deterioration in the various areas of our environment are down to earth pragmatists.

Large-scale property development is still a viable and sustainable activity in some new EU countries that are large enough and remained under-developed for many decades. Our real entrepreneurs should look at these countries to expand their business rather than continue to exploit what remains of our own fragile environment.

johncassarwhite@yahoo.com