Since the day when the tree protection regulations were amended in 2011, the future of trees in Malta was open to the whims and fancies of developers and so-called ‘landscapers’ who butcher them to their heart’s content.
Through these years, environmental NGOs, or some of them, have protested against such butchering of trees paid out of public funds. And the conscientious and intelligent public has also protested ad nauseam. But nobody seemed to care. Nobody seemed to listen. Nobody is conscious of the environmental and social damage. And the butchering goes on.
It would do no harm to rem-ember the government’s Malta Tagħna Lkoll electoral manifesto with regards to trees and woodland: “We will constantly protect existing trees in the Maltese towns and villages, and we will encourage the planting of more trees, especially indigenous trees.”
The government has been involved in a private-public partnership for the last 14 years. The amount paid for this so-called landscaping, for which there is no official regulator in the biodiversity and social aspects, is approximately €112 million, or €8 million each year. And what has the country got to show for it? Invasive species and exotic trees, imported species for landscaping, even imported indigenous specimens, to the detriment of Maltese biodiversity and to society, and the planting of annual flowers which are ploughed and uprooted after a couple of weeks.
Despite the national and international obligations, including EU obligations, with regards to the control of invasive species, such landscaping goes on without any consideration for them.
Furthermore, the use of expanses of turf gulping up the scarce water resources with the use of added herbicides seems to be the cherry on the commercial cake of this private-public agreement. To the extent that the minister responsible for landscaping still persists in keeping this public agreement confidential, and endorses €8 million annually.
Why? What is there to be ashamed of, unless of course this mismanagement is not in line with the public contract?
In the meantime, the Environment Minister looks on as if environment is not his responsibility.
Such gross mismanagement and waste of public resources, lacking any scientific and professional basis, ignoring international and EU obligations to the detriment of society and the environment, now seems to have also infected, penetrated and hijacked the University of Malta.
The Times of Malta (May 7) produced photos of butchered trees in the precincts of the university – 66 mature olive trees. The institution, one would presume, is aware of the public outcry regarding the mismanagement of trees in Malta for the last decade or so.
Who has given the greenlight for such butchering? And what has happened to the timber from the chopped trees?
There are qualified professional staff at the university who, I am sure, if they had been consulted would have strongly objected to such nonsensical, unprofessional butchering of trees.
The more so since during this time of year, the trees are in flower and beneficial to pollinators, including bees. So who has given the green light for such butchering? And what has happened to the timber from the chopped trees, especially when olive tree wood is so much in demand? Who is paying whom for such mismanagement? Who is going to pay for the damage done?
One wonders why such butchering was allowed on the university campus. Was it an internal decision or was it an imposed decision from outside?
Civil society looks at the university as the source from which trained professionals find their place in society and are involved in the professional running of the country. Civil society also pays to achieve this, too. But the butchering of trees on the campus does not reflect any success of trained professionals in the field.
On the contrary, such mismanagement, officially approved on the campus, looks more like a failure on the part of the university. The lack of qualifications of self-proclaimed landscapers in the management of trees has completely taken over any professional management one would expect from a university.
Could this be the result of the educational system, where each faculty is concerned only with its narrow specialities, not caring about the externalities or responsibilities that the decisions taken by their eventually qualified students on the wider social and environmental fabric of the island?
One can only hope that one day, possibly yesterday, Malta too will have qualified professionals with a wider vision of social and environmental responsibilities, who are also accepted and involved in the governance of the country. The butchering of mature trees on the campus, if anything, has severely dented the professionalism at the university in this field.
And everyone expects a strong reaction to address this mediocrity, which now has been going on for far too long without anybody taking any responsibility for it.
Alfred Baldacchino is a former assistant director at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s environment directorate.