Destruction of legally protected trees

I live in Ta' Braġg, Mellieħa, facing a green area, which means there are protected plants and trees, including plenty of very old carob trees. As such they should not be uprooted and anyone caught doing so will be fined, and I agree of course.

But it seems that some people can get far ahead with the authorities. The current local issue is that the Malta Environment and Planning Authority has given the go ahead for this green area to be developed.

We have seen a campaign in these last 10 years or so in favour of the environment; caring for the environment is taught in schools and we are constantly urged to show our responsibility as citizens by being environmentally aware.

Much emphasis is also made on sustainable development, where-by the natural and physical environment is preserved as much as possible. But the problem persists.

Laws are modified in such a way that we cannot argue with them; we are treated like grease spots on a carpet, as if we know nothing. Is it right to pull out perfectly strong carob trees that have a lifetime of many years and also destroy the whole green area? Then, to make it legally correct others are planted in another zone. What a joke.

Another contradiction is the Tree for You (34U) foundation, where the minister is seen on the news planting small trees with children and families, while lots of other legally protected trees situated in a natural maquis (which is also the habitat of birds and animals of different species) are being threatened. This is simply fooling the people.

The situation in Malta is not unlike that in George Orwell's Animal Farm, where alienated animals follow what the pigs at the top say. The top animals in this book modified laws to make them uitable for them, so that they would remain legally correct in the common animals' eye.

Plato, the famous Greek philosopher, argued that a ruler, in order to become one, must be fully trained specifically and developed. More than 2,400 years later we are still stuck in the same political system; the authorities have the power, not because they really deserve it or have the political knowledge but mostly because they have a high level of social capital, charisma and, therefore, votes.

I invite our politicians to visit Ta' Braġġ in Mellieha (beside Mario De Vasi Street and Triq il-Qortin), and calmly admire the trees and the maquis which they are about to destroy. And if I protest on site with others the day the construction begins, police will come and make us all go away. So what can I do to prevent the eradication of 'legally protected' trees?