On Friday evening, Rangers from the Malta Ranger attended a Gozo panel discussion with independent MEP candidate Arnold Cassola, PN’s Peter Agius and ADPD’s Sandra Gauci. Unfortunately the PL MEP candidate Thomas Bajada didn’t show up, the Rangers said.

Organised by Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar (FAA) and Malta-Arch and supported Ghawdix, the forum featured MEP candidates who shared their strategies to preserve Malta and Gozo’s natural, archaeological, and cultural heritage.

Topics included the controversial road-widening project on Triq Marsalforn in Gozo, the widespread destruction of trees, the alignment of greenhouse gas reduction with EU Directives, and the conservation of Malta’s rich and irreplaceable archaeological heritage. “Put this first.’

The organisers said that some of the themes brought up frequently during the discussion included ”empowerment of the local citizens to speak up and stand for what is rightfully theirs, misuse of funding that could be otherwise injected in green- or heritage-oriented projects, and the blurred boundaries between private developers and some of those those in government.”

The Rangers highlighted that ”’for the ones working on the forefront and seeing environmental crimes daily and all the loopholes in the laws enabling such, the statistics sent to the EU is nothing less than a tick box exercises and misleading.

”The goal 30% territory protected by 2030, which Malta claims to have reached, doesn’t carry more weight than the paper it’s stated on.”

The Rangers questions to the panel were the following:

”With zero Environmental Protection Unit Police in Gozo with little resources given to the EPU Unit in Malta, as well as no political will to close the loopholes although highlighted for years, do the candidates think that EU should scrutinise the statistics given by member states and cut fundings if found faulty?”

They also asked, ”what can we do to make the decision-makers listen and actually protect nature and stop Greenwashing the “enforcement” and the false “protection” of the Natura2000 on EU level and local level?”

The Rangers said that ”Mr Agius clearly stated that he is for further protection and patrolling of protected areas such as marine parks for example. He brought up that the implementation of projects was faulty and not what it should be. He also put emphasis on people making their voice heard by contacting the EU institutions to explain the situation in Malta that negatively impacts the environment.”

In his reply, the Rangers said Mr Cassola stated that ”the Government is spending way too much money on roads without it giving any clear result and should invest that amount in education and environment instead. He also brought up the importance of electing candidates that had these topics close to heart, whatever party one opts for.”

Ms Gauci brought up the tireless fight for our basic right to a healthy environment, in her response.The Rangers said she stressed ”that it’s not acceptable that individuals have to fight their own Government for this. It can only be changed by voting for different candidates.”

The MRU said ”it was refreshing to see the candidates agreeing on several topics and being able to discuss their differences in civilised manners.”

”The same questions have been sent to the MEP candidate from PL that didn’t show up and hope for him to answer them as well,” the Rangers said.

Malta Ranger Unit stressed that they ”will continue our operations in Gozo (and Malta). We will continue to put pressure on the decision-makers to carry out their work as they should and put pressure to fix the broken laws.”

They added that ”óur Rangers will continue to be on the forefront of a seemingly malfunctioning system that leaves the offenders to feel protected with full impunity to abuse nature. Malta’s nature deserves to be protected. Simple as that.”

The Malta Ranger Unit expressed their thanks to the organisers of the event.

Photo: Malta Ranger Unit

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