Easy access to public footpaths

The key to any discussion of Malta’s environment, specifically the natural environment, is how the country tackles the sharing and use of this tiny land, including access to the countryside itself.

Almost 25 per cent of Malta’s land is built up, compared with a European average of less than 10 per cent. Over the past 35 years, Malta’s agricultural land – virtually its only natural environment – has been reduced from almost half of the land area to one third today.

When it comes to people’s natural desire to enjoy the countryside, however, the situation is often exacerbated, as the Ramblers’ Association has consistently highlighted, with access being denied to those parts that have been taken over illegally by, for example, hunters and trappers or farmers.

The ramblers, Birdlife Malta, Nature Trust, Din l-Art Ħelwa and other reputable environmental, NGOs rightly claim the coutryside should be made accessible for the use and general enjoyment of the public.

During a recent visit to Dingli, accompanying officials from the Ramblers’ Association, The Times was shown large areas where access to footpaths across the land was blocked by gates, walls and crude home-made signs prohibiting entry.

A few months ago, the ramblers were involved in a stand-off with the owner of a farm at Is-Simblija over access to one of the most beautiful rural and archaeological sites. Only recently, Birdlife drew attention to what it described as “the illegal occupation of the countryside” and the proliferation of “illegal signs and graffiti”.

There are several cases of illegal acquisition of public land by individuals and the denial of access to it by members of the public. There can be no doubt, therefore, that this is a serious issue to which a resolution should be found.

The hunters’ federation has proposed that a way round the problem would be to “prevent foreigners from roaming the countryside as they please”, a suggestion that has rightly been greeted with derision because it would be, as Alternattiva Demokratika pointed out, illegal, discriminatory and absurd practically.

Besides, Maltese citizens are equally entitled to roam the countryside and are increasingly doing so.

More pragmatically, the Ramblers’ Association has suggested that supposed landowners or leaseholders blocking access to the countryside should be obliged to affix documentation to gates or the structures blocking access proving their legal rights to the land.

The documentation would include a reference number that could be checked online by walkers who suspect that the makeshift structures were blocking public footpaths illegally.

Although there would be policing and other practical difficulties to this suggestion, action to deal with the prevention and harassment of bona fide walkers in the countryside is urgently required in the face of widespread abuse.

There is a legal presumption that all property over which no one has a valid legal title belongs to the State. The onus of proof of ownership is therefore on whosoever claims right of ownership of that property. The ramblers’ proposals are a step in that direction.

However, the sections of the Civil Code dealing with “servitudes” created by law (that is, the subjection of property to an easement or right of way), in particular those regulating the right of entry and passage over private property, need to be amended to establish public rights of way to cater specifically for the rights of walkers in the countryside and to encourage the development of eco-tourism.