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Manikata site declared a heritage park to be managed by DLH and Nature Trust
Gerald Fenech
To the relief of environmentalists and local farmers who had vehemently opposed the project, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, together with Environment Minister George Pullicino, yesterday quashed any notion that government would embark on a golf course at Xaghra l-Hamra at Manikata, choosing to set up a Heritage Park instead.
This decision is the second major departure on sensitive environmental issues in the space of a few days, following the immediate closure of the hunting season on Thursday 10 May, 10 days ahead of schedule.
Justifying this apparent U-turn, the Prime Minister said that for the proposed golf course to be sustainable, a real estate project of around 254 apartments and 28 semi detached villas/maisonettes would need to be constructed in the area. Such development was now unacceptable to government, the Prime Minister declared.
Dr Gonzi also confirmed that all farmers in the area, whose leasehold had been abruptly terminated by President Edward Fenech Adami in July 2005, will retain the right to continue farming in the area with immediate effect.
The proposed Heritage Park, which will be administered by Din L-Art Helwa and Nature Trust – two NGOs which had fiercely criticised the original proposal – spans ir-Ramla tal-Mixquqa (Golden Bay) to the area known as Il-Prajjet (Anchor Bay), covering a total area of 2.6 square kilometres: approximately five times the size of Valletta.
In a press conference yesterday, Minister Pullicino confirmed the views of many NGOs, including the Ramblers’ Association, that the Xaghra l-Hamra promontory features a wide variety of endemic and threatened species and habitats.
Amongst the ecological highlights suddenly discovered by the government in the area are clay slopes with rare fagonia, garigue rich in Mediterranean thyme, various endemic orchids, as well as rock pools which are home to some unique specimens of fauna and flora. All these natural features had been repeatedly pointed out in numerous objections to the golf course proposal by various NGOs.
Minister Pullicino also said that the Environmental Impact Assessment, which was carried out on site, identified over 100 archaeological sites in the area, including rock cut chambers, corbelled huts and cart ruts.
The minister also said that there will be a management plan which is to be completed within the next three months and which will look to control access to the site, mitigate the effects of tourism and recreational developments and activities and also attempt to control the natural process of erosion. There will also be a programme to conserve and restore rubble walls and degraded habitats.
The plan also calls for ground water protection; which again heavily contradicts government’s previous attempts to locate a golf course on the natural acquifer of Il-Mizieb.
As in the Dwejra Heritage Park, there will be visitor management facilities, countryside trails and educational facilities for all ages. The press conference was also attended by Din l-Art Helwa president Martin Galea and Nature Trust President Vince Attard whose organizations will be managing and running the Heritage Park.
When asked by Malta Today if he is still intent on having two golf courses, one in Malta and the other in Gozo, Dr Gonzi replied that “if an opportunity comes along which is sustainable, then we will obviously look at any opportunity to upgrade our tourist product.”
Prime Minister Gonzi had made a clear and equivocal statement, live on radio in September 2004, that two golf courses were needed in Malta and Gozo, as they are essential for the upgrading of our tourism product.
In fact, as reported by the late Julian Manduca in the then Malta Financial and Business Times 20 April 2005, the PM had insisted that Malta needed two golf courses even before MEPA had refused a 10-year application for a course at Verdala in 2004.
gfenech@mediatoday.com.mt |
