Tal-Wej landowners protesting scheduling: ERA says designation backed by science

The Environment and Resources Authority is standing firm against the appeal of three landowners on Tal-Wej, a 203,484 sq.m site at the limits of Mosta, long renowned for its rich cultural and natural heritage and which was granted maximum protection as a Natura 2000 site in September 2020.

In a legal reply to an appeal by the owners, ERA insisted that when determining the boundaries of a Natura 2000 site, it bases its decisions on scientific criteria – while economic, social and cultural factors are only considered at a later stage when a management plan is drafted for the site.

Three landowners, namely Joseph Camilleri, former PN minister Louis Deguara and Leonard Vella, have filed an appeal against the designation, claiming they were denied a right of fair hearing when the ERA designated the area as a Natura 2000 site in September. In three separate appeals presented by lawyer and government consultant Robert Musumeci, the owners contend that they were not granted full access to information, including the “economic, social, cultural and policy considerations” made when the site was selected.

Musumeci claimed that the owners could not defend themselves “because they had no clue about the grounds on which the Authority based its decisions.”

But ERA quoted a landmark judgement in the European Court of Justice which states that a member state may not take account of economic, social and cultural requirements or regional and local characteristics, when selecting and defining the boundaries of Natura 2000 sites on the basis of scientific criteria.

The ERA contends that all landowners were informed of the designation of the site through a letter sent in July 2020, and that all landowners had a chance to contest this decision in public hearing held in September when it had provided the scientific grounds of its decision.

In fact the decision to include Tal-Wej within the EU’s network of protected sites was accompanied by a detailed scientific report published on the ERA’s website.

The report refers to various archaeological features, such as cart-ruts and tombs, present among numerous active and abandoned agricultural fields, and to a series of temporary freshwater rock pools that form in outcrops of Lower Coralline Limestone which host various endemic species like the Maltese Horned Pondweed, unique to Malta, and the Maltese Waterwort, a species confined to the Maltese islands and the nearby Pelagian Islands. These pools also support populations of the otherwise very rare Tadpole Shrimp.

“Considering that these freshwater rock pool habitats are locally rare and host extremely rare and often endemic species... the site is considered to be of great ecological significance for conservation, in a local context,” the ERA said.

According to its report the site boundary was originally determined through a holistic approach that considers ecological integrity, coherence, connectivity and buffer zones. These zones are the areas at the periphery, cruciual in avoiding so-called “edge effects” by reducing the detrimental activity from nearby built-up areas.

Last month Louis Deguara, a former health minister and Nationalist MP, insisted with MaltaToday that the farm plot he owns in the area is between 400-500m away from the protected rock pools and is bounded by two roads and an already developed area.

“I have nothing against the protection of the ecologically important areas but there are no rock pools or cart ruts on my plot which is even devoid of soil…”

When it was pointed out to him that zoning of ecologically important areas normally also includes buffer zones to prevent development encroaching on the protected areas, Deguara replied that an area closer to the rock pools was included in the extension of boundaries undertaken in 2006 by the PN-led government. “Construction has already taken place in close vicinity of these rock pools… far closer than my own plot which is around 400m away.”

Deguara said he felt his plot was unfairly kept outside development zones in the 2006 extension by the then-PN government, adding that it does not make sense to end the scheme with a blank wall, as is presently the case.

The appeal will be heard in March. More than 2000 people have signed a petition urging the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal to confirm the decision to grant protection to Tal-Wej.

The case is being considered a landmark one because if the appeal is accepted, it would set a precedent for property owners contesting the designation of other locations as Natura 2000 sites.