Activists gather outside Castille to protest woodlands gift to hunters

A group of NGOs and activists have gathered outside Castille this morning to protest the handing over of Mizieb and Ahrax to hunting lobby FKNK.

Wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the Spazji Miftuha logo, the young volunteers brought placards and a PA system to the event.

"Many times we hear the Government talking about the economic gains made by our country," activist Josianne Micallef told the crowd, "but the government must recognize the difference between economic gain and monetary gain. Money isn't everything, and votes much less. The important thing is the health of the population. The important thing is the quality of life of the Maltese and Gozitan people. The natural environment, cultural heritage and health go hand in hand and cannot be ignored in calculating the economic wellbeing of a country."

Describing the transfer of land as "an obscenity" she said that the Prime Minister had to understand that this act could not be measured with the same yardstick as the granting of much smaller parcels of land to environmentalist and cultural NGOs. "These NGOs work for the common good and not in the interest of a few of its members."

The event comes a day after a group of environmental organisations launched a legal challenge to the deed through which the Government granted guardianship of Ahrax and Mizieb to FKNK.

The challenge was filed before the Administrative Review Tribunal. 

Lawyer Claire Bonello is representing Birdlife Malta, Moviment Graffitti, Din L-Art Helwa, Friends of the Earth (Malta), Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar and Prof. Edward Mallia. Lawyers Joseph Ellis and Martin Farrugia will be representing The Ramblers’ Association of Malta in this case.

The NGOs will be collectively challenging the Lands Authority on a number of grounds.

The NGOs are claiming that the Authority has acted in an arbitrary, untransparent, discriminatory and unreasonable manner and that it has committed numerous procedural violations resulting in it acting outside its powers as established by law.

“The irrelevant and improper considerations used by the Lands Authority to assess and award the concession will result in the public’s enjoyment of the countryside found in these sites to be curtailed for large swathes of the year, all to accommodate a minority of FKNK’s members,” they said in a statement.

The NGOs argue that EU law was breached when the Government failed to conduct any of the required studies in order to determine and evaluate the environmental impacts of such a large concession.

They also claim that EU law was also not followed when the public was not allowed to participate in the drafting of the resulting management plans due to the fact that the agreement was negotiated in secret.

“The NGOs believe that the concession of these two areas for the risible sum of €400 in order to entertain a pastime will also result in lost revenue which should have been accrued towards the Environment Fund.”

The deed is also being challenged on the grounds that it requires the Minister responsible for hunting to employ a number of ‘conservation officers’ from the public purse who will then be managed by FKNK. It is being claimed that since a Minister is not a public officer at law, he has no legal power to directly employ people into the public service for this purpose.

The plaintiffs are also claiming that the terms of the agreement encroach on public domain areas in contravention to Public Domain law and the Protocol regarding Coastal Zone Management.