Gozo in the Strategic Plan for Environment and Development

Earlier today a document setting out the objectives of a Strategic Plan for Environment and Development, was unveiled for public consultation. It will replace the 20-year old Structure Plan.

In the document Gozo is treated as a distinct spatial area.

The Strategic Plan for Environment and Development (SPED) will seek to enable economic growth, strengthen employment opportunities, enhance competitiveness and innovation whilst ensuring a healthy environment for future generations

The document puts forward a spatial structure for the purpose of guiding development and then presents the key issues for the sustainable management of land and sea resources with their respective spatial implications. Finally, the strategic spatial vision and objectives of Government to address these issues are set out.

This document represents Government’s intentions and strategic objectives that the SPED must address. These strategic objectives are to be subjected to public consultation to ensure that the SPED is built on an understanding of the needs by the wider community and the private sector.

“Gozo and Comino have a population density of only 452 residents per square kilometre; around one third of that for Malta. The distinction between urban and rural is much less clear in Gozo. Although Rabat dominates the island in terms of population concentration and non-agricultural functions, the remaining built up areas are small centres of population such as Xewkija, Nadur and Xaghra, and even smaller settlements such as Ghasri and Gharb in the wider rural area. Other settlements are dominated by the tourism and leisure function with low resident population.

On the basis of natural characteristics, existing uses and their interactions as well as administrative boundaries, the Urban Area (Development Zone), the Rural Area (Outside the Development Zone), the Coastal Zone (up to 12 nautical miles), the Marine Area (between 12 and 25 nautical miles) and Gozo have been identified as distinct spatial areas as shown on the Map ^[1].

The current Development Zone and Outside Development Zone boundaries, have been delineated through the Local Plans Rationalisation Exercise of 2006, the terrestrial limits of the Coastal Zone were identified by the 2002 Coastal Strategy Topic Paper.

The seaward limit of the Coastal Zone extends to the 12 nautical miles boundary of the Maltese territorial waters. The limit of 25 nautical miles of the Fisheries Management Conservation Zone corresponds to the limit of the Marine Area addressed by the SPED.

Gozo is treated as a distinct spatial area in line with the thrust in the NRP, Vision 2015 and the NEP.

It is important to recognise the distinctive characteristics of Gozo and thus to ensure that policies for Gozo are not just a replication of a ‘one size fits all’ approach but are focused and created with Gozo’s specific needs at the centre of policy making.

Gozo faces a number of realities and challenges mainly originating from its double insularity which may necessitate a more tailor-made approach to address them. Being an island within an island, the operators in Gozo suffer from a number of comparative disadvantages to their counterparts in Malta such as high transportation costs.

Transport in Gozo is highly dependent on private car use causing congestion, air pollution and noise in certain areas. The recently introduced new public transport system is expected to help reduce these impacts. The small size of the island renders space very sensitive and as a result limits opportunities for both business and industrial activity.

Issues with space are also evident in the extremely fragmented farm land which limits the optimal use for agriculture. An emerging issue is the lack of sufficient child-care centres on the Island. This will become more pressing in the near future given the number of parents having to travel to Malta for work, compounded with the fact that people will remain active for a longer period of time. Capacity constraints in tertiary education are also evident.

Gozo is characterised by an ageing population and a high dependency ratio. Its economy is highly dependent on tourism, retailing, and governmental services. These factors combine to create a number of threats to the Island’s future opportunities. These include a real risk of environmental degradation due to the continuous over- exploitation of the rare and limited resources such as landscape and biodiversity; excess urbanisation; and high seasonality in tourism arrivals.

All these elements put the same distinctiveness and quality that attracts the visitor to Gozo in the first place at risk. The transformation of coastal recreational areas into highly urbanised waterfronts changes the characteristic landscape and squeezes the natural coastal biodiversity further.

Fragmentation in rural activities in connection with farm holding and land ownership increases the risk of making agricultural activities non-profitable. This will have adverse implications on the rural setting especially the loss of traditional activities and maintenance of dwellings.

Vision

The Vision encapsulates the long term aim of the SPED which emerges from the key Government policy directions in the NRP under the Europe 2020 strategy, Vision 2015 and the draft National Environment Policy. It translates these policy thrusts into a spatial vision for the Urban Area, the Rural Area, the Coastal Zone and Marine Area and for Gozo.

By 2020, the Maltese Islands will have raised their potential for social and economic growth in the core sectors for development – Financial Services, ICT, Tourism, Manufacturing, Health, Education and Eco-Gozo; they will have improved the quality of life and wellbeing, particularly for vulnerable groups, and the environmental awareness of their people; they will have moved closer to a low- carbon, zero-waste, green economy, will have halted the decline of their biodiversity and deterioration of their water resources and will have used space sustainably.

The Urban Area will become an attractive place for people to live, work, play and interact. It will be clean, pollution free, safe, green, distinct, evoke a sense of openness, energy efficient and generate energy from micro-renewable infrastructure. Its historic cores will become vibrant and their townscapes harmonious. The Urban Area will have a network of economically dynamic urban hubs and walk-able neighbourhoods with clusters of local facilities.

The Rural Area shall sustain the livelihood of farming communities through modernisation of agricultural practices and diversification of compatible rural activities; shall remain a place where people can escape from daily urban life, visually pleasant and rich in biodiversity; and become better green lungs with less buildings and dereliction, more accessible and more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

The Coastal Zone and Marine Area shall maximise the potential for sustainable socio-economic growth and renewable energy infrastructure, shall accommodate legitimate and compatible uses, sustain the livelihood of the fishing community, remain rich in biodiversity and visually striking and become pollution free and accessible for public enjoyment. It shall play a significant enabling role for the Maltese Islands to reduce their impact on climate change and strengthen their capacity to adapt to climate change.

Gozo will become an ecological island. It shall protect the Gozitan lifestyle, the island’s environment, resources, culture and identity, and ensure that these play a significant part in attracting more visitors and investors to the island. Gozo’s economy shall be refocused to increase support for a healthy, inclusive society, protection and proper management of its environment, the preservation of its cultural heritage and strengthen the island identity.

In addition to the above strategic objectives the following applies specifically to Gozo.

Gozo Objective: to ensure that the socio- economic needs of Gozo are met and to protect the distinctiveness of Gozo’s settlements, cultural and natural environment to support the implementation of Eco-Gozo’s initiative by

• Designating a Business Hub in Rabat for predominantly retail, office, tourism, leisure uses • Designating Business Hubs in Marsalforn and Xlendi for predominantly tourism and leisure uses, and Mgarr for predominantly leisure uses

• Designating Enterprise Hubs in Xewkija and Ta’ Dbiegi for predominantly industrial and craft-related uses respectively

• Facilitating the establishment of new child care facilities close to or within established Business and Enterprise Hubs

• Supporting a regional agro-tourism policy specifically for Gozo and as a niche industry for Gozo

• Establishing family friendly recreational parks and walkways

• Managing the cultural landscape, the undeveloped coast and enhance its biodiversity

• Supporting afforestation initiatives in line with biodiversity goals.”

The Government said that everyone’s role in formulating this plan is essential:

“Do you agree with the proposed course of action to prioritise degraded, previously developed land and buildings for development?

Do you consider it useful to control the location, design and operation of development to safeguard environmental health from air and noise pollution and risks associated with use and management of chemicals?

Will the proposals to increase green open spaces, support development that promotes the use of public transport and the integration of small scale renewable energy infrastructure into the design of buildings improve your quality of life?”

The full set of Strategic Objectives can be downloaded from here ^[2].

Please send your feedback to: sped@mepa.org.mt ^[3] . Contribution by post can also be sent to the following address: SPED, Malta Environment and Planning Authority, P.O.Box 200, Marsa GPO 01. Submissions will be received until 11th April 2012.

FAQs ^[4].