NGOs must take Miżieb woodland challenge to another court, magistrate says

Environmental NGOs fighting Lands decision to give hunters l-Aħrax and Miżieb woodlands encounter first stumbling block

Protestors gather at Miżieb to protest the woodland deal for hunters
Protestors gather at Miżieb to protest the woodland deal for hunters

An action by six environmental NGOs to challenge the Lands Authority’s decision to hand over the Miżieb and Aħrax woodlands to the hunters’ lobby FKNK has stumbled at a first hurdle over the competence of the court to handle their complaint.

The Administrative Review Tribunal, a court that handles cases protesting government decisions, said the complainants had no juridical merit in challenging the decision.

The court usually hears parties directly aggrieved as participants in government decisions and procurement competitions.

Magistrate Charmaine Galea said the eNGOs could not qualify as “aggrieved parties” under the law regulating the tribunal, being extranerous to the Lands Authority decision to forge a managenment agreement with the hunter for the stewardship of the land.

But she said that the NGOs could still have juridical interest in other courts of law to challenge the decision

The six environmental organisations took court action to challenge a government deed that granted the guardianship of the l-Aħrax and Miżieb woodlands to the hunting lobby FKNK.

Two separate, but allied court actions representing the parties were filed before the Tribunal for Administrative Revision.

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

Ramblers Association president Ingram Bondin said the improper considerations used by the Lands Authority to award the concession will curtail the public’s enjoyment of the countryside for large parts of the year, all to accommodate a minority of FKNK’s members.

In fact the NGOs assert 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 a 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 – Gozo minister Clint Camilleri – 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 NGOs 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.