NGOs yesterday expressed their serious concern at the way environment issues were being used as “vote-catching pawns”.

A statement by Din l-Art Ħelwa, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Nature Trust (Malta), the Ramblers Association, Friends of the Earth (Malta), Birdlife Malta, Green House and the Gaia Foundation said the way the main parties were turning the election campaign into a boxing match was “most inappropriate”.

They also said proposed changes to environment policies were being bandied about superficially and obscurely.

The NGOs said they were not satisfied with the inadequate statements proposed by the two leading political parties and required concrete proposals on a number of issues.

These include the protection of Natura 2000 and SAC sites, the improvement of air quality, the restriction of over-development, illegal structures and illicit squatting, illegal hunting and trapping, the decline of both terrestrial and marine biodiversity, freedom of access to the countryside and the foreshore and animal rights.