A recent press report indicated that Mepa’s Environment Protection Department, led by former Din l-Art Ħelwa president Petra Bianchi, concluded there are “no overriding ecological reasons” to continue to protect an ecological zone at Portomaso.

The need to protect this zone was identified in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) carried out with the original permit application for the Portomaso project in 1996, and all permits obliged the developers to fence off and protect the ecological zone throughout the construction period and after.

It will be a sad day when developers are allowed to burn or destroy protected species in even more ecological zones as apretext to obtaining develop-ment permits in view of the ensuing absence of “over-riding ecological reasons”. So why set a precedent?

Instead, in view of the developer’s failure to comply with permit conditions and protect important species, they should be obliged to transfer seeds of the same species to the Portomaso site from the few surviving sites in Malta.

Ms Bianchi is on public record with her articles to the press following her appointment at Mepa, stating that she will do her utmost to ensure the protection of all important natural habitats and public spaces.

Why now such sudden change of heart with regard to the Portomaso south ecological zone? After all, even the Natural Heritage Advisory Committee within Mepa recommends refusal of the lagoon application to protect the natural species, and even if one of the two protected species has mysteriously disappeared from the site, why should the surviving one be destroyed?

One final question to Ms Bianchi: The original permits contained conditions that no further developments will be allowed at Portomaso, so why should Mepa’s Environment Department not leave well alone, and continue to defend the protected and rare ecological species, instead of joining the developer’s bandwagon, as she is doing by backing the EPD report?