Do it right
The Environment Minister announced earlier this week on TVM that a new environmental court is in the process of being set up. The draft law to set up this court, which will hear cases of an “environmental nature”, should be in place by January, Jose Herrera said.
At face value, this is a very good initiative that it desperately required in Malta.
Details, however, are still very sketchy and it is, at this point, difficult to say how effective this court will be.
We can say from the onset that, in order for it to work, this initiative must be backed up by realistic laws and adequate enforcement. We also need to know what the remit of this court will be. What areas will it cover? Will it deal with cases related solely to illegalities taking place in our countryside or will it also cover the rape of our urban environment? Will it also deal with wildlife crime, such as illegal hunting?
Who will be doing the actual prosecuting?
The police? ERA? Do these entities have the resources to do so?
More importantly, will citizens be able to bring cases against developers who break the laws?
And seeing that, in many cases, the authorities are the ones destroying our environment, will this court also take them to task and hold them accountable for the destruction?
If this is the case, what power will this court have? What punishment will be inflicted in cases where the government is found to have breached environmental laws or contributed to the unnecessary destruction of the environment? Will it be made to pay a fine? Or will it be forced to restore these areas to their original state, if that is even possible?
What will happen in the case of developers who start building without a permit only to stop halfway there and leave halfconstructed buildings in our countryside and village cores? Should they not be made to tear the entire thing down and restore the area, while disposing of the waste generated through the proper ways?
How will the court deal with cases like the one at Wied Qirda in Zebbug, where an illegal concrete dam blocking the valley was under an enforcement order for over a decade but was recently declared as being legal by the Planning Authority?
Herrera said the new court, which will be presided over by a magistrate, will be “the envy of other countries.” But is one magistrate enough when so many crimes of an environmental nature are carried out on a daily basis in Malta?
We do not wish to shoot down the idea before it even comes to fruition, but we urge the minister to do things properly and ensure that the necessary resources are allocated, not only to the actual court but also to the bodies that deal with environmental crime. Otherwise, this will be a failed experiment.