Din l-Art Ħelwa was founded half a century ago. Its objectives have been to promote the preservation of historic buildings and monuments, to protect the natural environment, to stimulate enforcement of existing laws and the enactment of new ones for the protection of the built and natural environment and to hold properties in trust for the benefit of the nation.

Over the past 50 years, it has worked unceasingly to protect the beauty of Malta’s national heritage and its precious, remaining countryside. It has done so with passion but always in a constructive way, lobbying hard on behalf of the nation in the face of successive governments all too often hell-bent on appeasing the construction industry in the name of ‘economic progress’.

The Open Letter to the Prime Minister, which was published in the media last week, signed by six former or serving executive presidents, expressing their grave concern about the current state of Malta’s environment and the government’s plans for the future, is, therefore, not to be taken lightly. It is the first time in Din l-Art Ħelwa’s history that all its presidents have felt impelled to write such a letter to the Prime Minister.

It makes three powerful points.

First, it stresses the key issue, which the government has overlooked, that proper land use is Malta’s most pressing environmental problem. It highlights the imperative need to ensure that good land use planning is put in place. However, it deplores that environmental safeguards that had been painstakingly put in place – often in the face of stiff opposition from developers – between 1992, when the first structure plan was established, and 2012 were now being dismantled “without regard to the long-term effects on Malta’s besieged landscape”.

Secondly, it states that the national structure plan – “the country’s template for the built and rural environment” – is long overdue for review. But, instead, the government has merely reissued a set of objectives, constituting the ‘Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development’ without any of the essential detailed policies that must underpin a plan of this nature if it is to have any validity or credibility. “Malta has been left without a proper strategy for the future governance and good administration of its built and rural environment, thus inviting bad management and abuse to fester”. To make matters worse, the government is pushing through its ‘plan’ without any Parliamentary scrutiny.

Thirdly, the letter highlights a number of unilateral decisions affecting the environment – the Rural Policy, a new policy for high-rise buildings and expressions of interest in land reclamation projects – which are being introduced without reference to an overarching strategic plan and without conducting a Strategic Environmental Assessment or the presentation of a Marine Spatial Plan.

This lack of adherence to established administrative procedures and consultation are rightly seen by Din l-Art Ħelwa as matters for concern which could lead to the “further and rapid degradation” of the built and rural environment.

When six former or serving executive presidents of Malta’s leading cultural heritage and environmental NGO feel so strongly that they must write a joint letter to the Prime Minister expressing deep anxiety about the environment, it is time for government to sit up and take notice.

Din l-Art Ħelwa’s plea to the Prime Minister to leave behind a legacy of environmental improvement, not degradation, is heartfelt. Our children deserve to inherit a truly sustainable country. Without comprehensive strategic planning, endless ‘growth’ – endless destruction of the environment – is impossible in this small and finite land.

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