Sand dunes are nowadays synonymous with conservation efforts, and for obvious reasons – this sensitive habitat is full of plant and animal species that are very rare on the Maltese islands. However, large swathes of sand dunes have been obliterated from these islands over the decades as a result of human encroachment on beaches, including roads, camping, internet cafes, sunbathing and hiring of beach furniture.

In view of this habitat’s high conservation value, between 2003 and 2006 Nature Trust and I had decided to bite the bullet and embark on proactive conservation at White Tower Bay (Ramla tat-Torri), at the tip of l-Aħrax peninsula, which still has the best preserved sand dune remnants in Malta.

We applied for Unesco Participation Programme grants, which were successfully used to install a chain-and-link fence around the perimeter of the dunes at White Tower Bay to stop camping and parking so common in the area.

Despite numerous acts of vandalism, such that the fence had to be replaced several times in the sweltering summer heat, the hard work paid off, with the parking of cars and pitching of tents on the sand dune becoming a distant memory.

At the end of the conservation effort, the site was left to its own devices by those responsible to safeguard such sites – namely, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, despite being alerted to the ramshackle state of the site.

In fact, during a recent visit to the White Tower Bay area, I was gobsmacked at the run-down state of the sand dune remnants and their surroundings. The parking of vehicles on the dunes during weekends is the order of the day and all that is left in place of what was once a complete chain and link fence (and a wire rope in later years) is some rusted remains.

The sand dune remnants at White Tower Bay form part of the Rdum tal-Madonna Natura 2000 site. It’s all well and good to formally designate such sites as protected, but at the end of the day if there is no tangible implementation and enforcement in the field, these designations are simply a house of cards, or a line drawn in the sand.

Has all the concern about biodiversity so loudly trumpeted in the media, evaporated?

You can imagine how disillusioned Nature Trust and I are at seeing all the hard work we had invested to protect the sand dune remnants at White Tower Bay literally going down the drain, simply due to the nonchalance by those who have the power to change the course of events.

Let’s act at Mġarr ix-Xini

The marine area within Malta’s five marine protected areas (MPAs) is, at least on paper, impressive. An estimated 18,000 hectares, or five per cent, of Malta’s territorial waters are enclosed within the five MPAs. I say ‘at least on paper’ because one can see very few management measures being implemented in these areas, effectively turning the MPAs into clawless tigers.

The smallest of the five local MPAs is Mġarr ix-Xini, whose size should be conducive to tangible management measures.

One of the most urgently-needed measures is the setting up of a permanent mooring site at the inlet’s entrance so as to stop it from being cluttered up by large recreational vessels whose anchors are continuing to negatively impact the seagrass meadows growing on the seabed.

Several diving clubs that operate in the area and which are sensitive to the inlet’s conservation importance have long been advocating for such a permanent mooring, which would spare the MPA untold damage.

The site’s conservation importance and the contribution of the diving industry to the local economy should, at least in theory, spur our authorities into action. So what is stopping Mepa, Transport Malta and others from acting on site?

St Thomas Bay: Two wrongs make a right?

A project description statement (PDS) and planning application have recently been submitted to Mepa to develop a caravan site at St Thomas Bay. This has rightly raised the heckles of hundreds of Marsascala residents who oppose the development.

If there is no enforcement in the field, designations are simply a line drawn in the sand

To try to justify the need to develop the caravan/mobile home parking site, swimming pool, play area, parking and storage facilities, the PDS says that the 6,000-square-metre site is flanked by illegal boathouses, and that this makes it ideal as a caravan site.

This is tantamount to condoning the dumping of tons of rubble on an Outside Development Zone plot of land and then applying to develop the plot because this would improve the site’s visual appearance. Since the people using these illegal boathouses do not have any legal title to them, the applicants should not use them as leverage in this case.

As for the PDS’s claim that the development would be reversible and environmentally-friendly,similar claims were made whenthe green light was given to the sprawling eyesore known as the ‘camp site’ in L-Aħrax. Reality proves otherwise.

Enforcement action, inaction at Xlendi

A few weeks ago in this column I alerted Mepa to an ongoing illegal development in the Xlendi Valley, just opposite La Grotta discotheque, in what should be a scheduled area.

Enforcement officers duly visited the site and issued enforcement notice 186/13 for the illegalconstruction of rooms, paving the area with limestone stone slabs, building a barbecue structure and building limestone and concrete walls.

Using the laudable mechanism set in place by Mepa last November, the site’s owner is now incurring a daily fine for these illegalities.

Mepa enforcement should be commended in this case for the decisive and prompt action it took at Xlendi.

Intriguingly, when members of the public reported the development to Munxar council, all they got was a non-committal reassurance that nothing amiss was underway on site and that most probably it was simply a case of dividing walls being constructed.

By contrast, the never-ending La Grotta discotheque saga drags on. Despite a court ruling on June 9, 2011, two years down the line no action has been taken in connection with enforcement notice 893/99 (which had been issued 12 years earlier!) which stipulated that the discotheque’s illegal structures must either be demolished or sanctioned.

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