Crowdfunding – or the pooling of small sums of money from individual donors to sponsor an activity that would otherwise be beyond reach of a single financeer – is increasingly being deployed by civil society as an advocacy measure, mainly to finance the lodging of appeals against large-scale construction projects.
The recently approved renewal of the permit for the gargantuan (including almost 800 units) Mistra ridge high-rise development is a case in point. The crowd had to step in and proverbially put their money where their mouth is, and coughed up the required sum to file an appeal against the development.
The crowd’s timely intervention was precipitated by the politicians’ lack of resolve, namely those sitting on the St Paul’s Bay local council, who failed to do likewise.
The most stinging criticism of the Mistra high-ridge development, for which an outline permit was first issued in 2009, has recently emerged from an unlikely quarter – Godwin Cassar, former director of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa). He has openly denounced the failure of the pertinent case officer to refer to the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) policy of 2014.
This policy precludes high-rise development on ridges and categorically states that it “should not interfere with views of protected areas, such as Special Areas of Conservation and Areas of High Landscape Value, as tall buildings would prejudice the public enjoyment of the open countryside, the coast or setting of urban landmarks of local, national or international importance”.
Thus, as architect Cassar rightly underscored in his opinion piece (The Sunday Times of Malta, February 10), the mind boggles as to why the case officer failed to refer to this instrumental piece of legislation, and the failure of a significant part of the PA board (six out of nine members) to question this shortcoming.
Gżira is yet another fertilebattleground for the crowd, given the unallayed greed being shown by some in future plans peddled for the waterfront area and Manoel Island.
For instance, the envisaged land reclamation exercise, proposed in order to increase the footprint of Manoel Island itself, would obliterate a substantial part of the promenade. And the proposed development involves stacking in more residential units on the island, invariably compounding the banes that come along with clutter, namely noise, lack of parking space and disruption.
I am witnessing a true proactive stance being taken by the Maltese public on environmental issues within their community
Residents, who have come together as the Inħobbu l-Gżira group, rightly contend that the existing boat yard facilities will protrude closer to the residential area as a result of the development. The grassroots lobby at Gżira has come up with a petition (which is available online at https://bit.ly/2DMw2cU), calling upon the House of Representatives to backtrack on the Manoel Island master class by having control of the island relinquished and turning it into an effective recreational public domain.
The over-arching motivation for Petition 7, originated by the Gżira lobby, is as compelling as can be: “This is a historic opportunity for our government to reverse the wrongs of the past and go down in history as champions of the people. Manoel Island is the last unbuilt area in the dense North Harbours conurbation; such a gem of architectural and natural heritage should rightly belong to all the people of Malta and Gozo.”
This is a historic juncture indeed, as I am witnessing, after nearly 20 years of slogging along with this column, a true proactive stance being taken by the Maltese public on environmental issues within their community.
Mistra: The best location for a high-rise development is rarely right on top of a ridge. It does not take an expert to realise that the visual impact of such a development would be obtrusive, to say the least.Addicted to the chainsaw
The unprecedented sustained gale force winds that ravaged the islands over the course of last weekend have taken their toll on mature trees in urban areas. It is worth noting that trees in rural areas have borne a somewhat smaller brunt, presumably due to a higher availability of soil for root growth and due to the lack of destabilising pruning.
While the hacking of some of the toppled trees is inevitable, given that they have been irrevocably damaged, most of the damaged trees simply listed to one side, thus requiring a simple re-adjustment exercise. Despite this, some of the relatively intact mature trees were promptly sliced and diced with chainsaws, probably since this represents the fastest and most cost-effective intervention, resulting in the disappearance of a number of roadside cypress, olive, Ficus and Aleppo pine icons.
When will it finally dawn upon contractors that mature trees are not fledgling saplings, and are an integral part of the urban landscape that is cherished by many?
This is an impassioned appeal to salvage the remaining mature trees by not resorting, where possible, to the chainsaw, but to a more considerate intervention.
Bioblitz mania
A BioBlitz represents the ultimate in citizen scientific engagement. It entails the close collaboration between scientists (taxonomists mainly) and the public to identify and record as many species of flora and fauna as possible within a delineated area over a short (normally 24 hour) period of time.
The biodiversity records made during the BioBlitz event, normally supported by photographic evidence, are subsequently submitted to a tailor-made online platform, such as the smart phone app iNaturalist, which in turn relays the records received to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an open source database freely available to scientists and to policymakers around the globe.
I was recently involved in the first ever BioBlitz event held in Cyprus, in the Akrotiri nature reserve. It was a multi-disciplinary event given that it entailed surveys both on land (in marshes, woodland and coastal areas) and underwater, through the deployment of the University of Malta’s underwater drone.
Malta definitely could do with the rekindled interest in biodiversity issues that a BioBlitz event normally triggers. Who will take the cue to organise the first ever BioBlitz event in Malta?
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece