While dwelling on the state of the environment today, Simone Mizzi also recalled events that would inspire the organisation and its volunteers for many years to come.  She reminded the assembly of the words that accompanied the Silver Medal Award presented in 2005 to Judge Maurice Caruana Curran, Founder President of the Organisation, by Europa Nostra, for his Dedication to Cultural Heritage.  

He was awarded, "for his unwavering commitment to the ideals of conservation, for his ability to speak fearlessly for heritage, for his unflinching spirit of volunteership, considered by all in Malta to be the pioneer and pillar of the national conservation movement." 

Ms Mizzi said that Din l-Art Ħelwa, over 50 years, has remained true to this spirit with the work of successive generations of volunteers and their dedicated Executive Presidents:  Anthony Bonanno, Martin Scicluna, Martin Galea and Petra Caruana Dingli and now she had the privilege of leading the organisation into its 50^th Year. 

 

She urged future generations of Din l-Art Ħelwa to be mindful of the guiding principles of the association, which had been laid out during the foundation of the organisation at the Manoel Theatre on 9 July 1965. The first Patron of Din l-Art Ħelwa, Sir Maurice Dorman, then Governor General of Malta and the founding fathers, led by Judge Maurice Caruana Curran, had prescribed its mission:

'To promote Malta's beauty, to fight ugliness, to preserve our heritage in the towns and villages, in the countryside and by the sea.'

 

Mrs Mizzi said this was so simply said and was still so true, and that DLĦ's "speaking out fearlessly for Malta will continue".

When DLĦ became a member of Europa Nostra, Maurice Caruana Curran was invited to give the opening address at the 1967 Strasbourg forum.  At that time, the beauty of Xemxija was being lost to construction.  He called his discourse:  'Problems of coastal conservation'.  In his appeal to the Malta government of the day, he urged it not to "condemn Malta to 300 years of ugliness" due to the rapid coastal development that was taking place. He spoke about the need to protect and manage the sea as a resource again at the Pacem in Maribus Convention held in Malta, in 1971, alongside Thor Heyderhal, the renowned ethnographer/explorer/writer of 'The Kontiki expeditions'.  

 

"That Marine and Coastal Spatial management in Malta has not yet taken off 50 years later, and that land reclamation schemes and tower blocks on the coast are planned without adequate studies to justify them is ironic," Ms Mizzi said.

Governments have never been spared by Din l-Art Ħelwa's leaders since then. The organisation is respected for its challenging but respectful and impartial voice, which does not hesitate to speak out fearlessly for the best preservation of our cultural heritage, the environment and the landscape.  "When we read the continuous appeals our organisation made to successive heads of government," Ms Mizzi said, "there is one underlying thread, common through these five decades, that has caused the destruction of Malta's beauty.  This is undoubtedly the lack of political will to do what is right for the environment, which remains a fragile pawn in the hands of politicians."

 

Ms Mizzi went on to trace some of the past decade's historic moments in the protection of natural heritage.

In 2006, a DLĦ team campaigned to save Ta' Ċenċ, obtaining some 10,000 petitions. In 2015, Mġarr ix-Xini is still pristine. She augured that time will bring more vision to planners and to the owners of such privileged places, so that this sacred area will still be protected from development.

Also in 2006, DLĦ took to the streets for the big 'Save Gozo' campaign and demonstrated against the Rationalisation of Boundaries, which unscrupulously gave whole swathes of land to development. "We are still feeling the disastrous effects of such decisions today", said Ms Mizzi "and yet this government has said it will extend the boundaries yet again."

 

In 2007, Din l-Art Ħelwa, together with two other NGOs, Nature Trust Malta and the Gaia Foundation, was successful in founding the Heritage Parks Federation.  Martin Galea, then Executive President, lobbied government on the eve of the election and his perseverance was pivotal to establishing the first ever national park of protected territory at Il-Majjistral, in the North West of Malta, saving 6 km of coastline from golf courses. "That is two per cent of our coast line", said Ms Mizzi. "This may not be the seven per cent of coastline protected in UK by the National Trust of Great Britain, but that association has been around for 120 years; Malta has some catching up to do!"

Prior to that, around the turn of the new millennium, Din l-Art Ħelwa worked hard to set up Foresta 2000 with Birdlife Malta and the Government Parks Division, a successful project that has seen 20,000 trees planted above the bird sanctuary below the Red Tower. This is a large tract of land where a Mediterranean forest has been regenerated in fifteen years, which attracts birds and other fauna and is an area of countryside that can be enjoyed by hikers and nature lovers.

In December 2013, DLĦ took to the streets again to protest against the 'Monster at Mistra', an abomination of a 22-floor development that would alter the St Paul's Bay and Mistra Ridge landscape evermore. Despite public protests,  the Malta Environment and Development Authority approved this hideous development. The five Executive Presidents of the organisation led DLĦ members during the rally.

On 31 October 2014, the Open Letter to the Prime Minister, signed by Din l-Art Ħelwa's former and serving Presidents, made the headlines. It highlighted the Organisation's grave concerns about the state of the environment and this government's intentions to further besiege the landscape with new policies that allow construction in rural areas, land reclamation schemes, the building of tower blocks and other high rise policies. Ms Mizzi said it was also a cri du coeur that summarises the havoc wreaked on our cultural landscape by successive administrations over the last fifty years due to political support for the development lobby.

In November 2014, DLH launched its 'Save the Countryside Campaign' on Facebook, which is touching the hearts of new audiences with the beauty of 'This Fair Land', the name in Maltese of the organisation. The Facebook page has had 11,500 followers and Likes in just three months.

Ms Mizzi said the struggle for heritage is told in Stanley Farrugia Randon's new book 'Din l-Art Ħelwa, Heritage Saved 1965 - 2015', dedicated to past and future volunteers and which has just been launched with the support of the Francis Miller Memorial Fund.  

Ms Mizzi said this beautiful book will undoubtedly be of inspiration to future generations. Its cover is by photographer Daniel Cilia who was inspired by the logo of the organisation, the gardjola at Senglea Point. Ms Mizzi commended Council Member Stanley Farrugia Randon for dedicating four years of work to research and creating this book in time for DLĦ's 50th anniversary.

Ms Mizzi then asked members to take a reality check on the state of the environment today. She said this is threatened more than ever by a materialistic mentality by which success is rated by how quickly money turns. Sadly, the use of property still provided easy attraction. The current administration is fast dropping most of the protective environmental measures painfully established in the last twenty years, rendering it possible to take development to places where one could not  before and rendering illegalities legal through amnesties. Government has placed itself above the law, with state-led projects no longer requiring approvals, such as the upgrading of country roads for the passage of modern agricultural equipment. 

While these require access, the loss of trees, water catchments and archaeological finds require monitoring. Valletta's gracious interiors are being gutted, falling prey to glitzy jewellery shops and boutique hotels, while its market stalls are a blight wherever they remain, especially at its new entrance.  

Ms Mizzi remarked that Mepa's environment protection function seems inexistent and except for rubber stamping development, it has become redundant. By its own admittance, it has not coped with decades of illegalities. If locations of street markets in a World Heritage city are planned without Mepa, and extensions to government roads too, she questioned, "Is Mepa needed at all?" 

 

The development horse has bolted

The Mepa Chairman has admitted he was not consulted on amnesties, just as Environment Minister Leo Brincat had confessed that he was not consulted on the new Rural policy which allows construction in the countryside.  

"The development horse has bolted," Ms Mizzi said.  "Urban conservation areas are again heavily threatened by the developers' axe, which is set to demolish anything of any age, while the countryside is up for grabs. The task list presented to government in DLĦ's 2014 Annual General Meeting lies largely ignored.   

"DLĦ wants scheduling to be stepped up, both for protected landscapes, and now for entire streetscapes in our gracious urban conservation areas. Developers want to pull these down to replace them with the anonymous unimaginative four floors with penthouse currently the standard."

Ms Mizzi said the Prime Minister is particularly busy right now, but said, "We have not forgotten his invitation to dialogue with environmentalists during his New Year's Eve message and  we hold him to it.  Environmentalists too have a vote," she said, "and they shall use it when the time comes."

During the Assembly, members adopted several resolutions, all concerning the state of the environment, namely: the protection of the countryside; the safeguarding of the foreshore; the conservation of Gozo's rural character; the reuse of existing buildings for new developments;  measures against shabbiness and the condemnation of amnesties.

Ms Mizzi quoted from a letter received back in 1965 by Judge Caruana Curran, from Sir Hugh Casson, a respected British Architect, Head of the Royal Academy in England and promoter of modernist planning. 

Sir Hugh had advised that in order to "promote a policy of creative preservation of our lovely island's natural and architectural heritage, in small things as well as large, it was important to keep an alert eye upon all new development and ensure that its standards and quality of design do not fall below the BEST of what it replaces".

Ms Mizzi said that with 50 years of crass development, such as can be seen everywhere, insensitive, of abysmal quality, where new and old vie with each other, and with hybrid buildings that border on the ridiculous, this should not be too difficult.

The one singular improvement Ms Mizzi said she felt had taken place in these last five decades, is this one example at Valletta's entrance, where Renzo Piano's creative genius has so finely replaced the hideous Bergonzo gate of 1965. 

Together with the other five DLĦ Executive Presidents, Ms Mizzi extended her best wishes to successive generations of DLĦ volunteers, willing them many more decades of fighting passionately and caring lovingly for our wonderful heritage. "It is a unique privilege," she said, "to lead Din l-Art Ħelwa in its 50th Anniversary Year and speak out for Malta's heritage." 

She concluded by urging all DLĦ members and the public to SHout 'Ivvota Le' against Spring Hunting during the 11 April referendum. 

"Man is the only animal that kills for sport and killing birds when they are on their way to reproduce must stop," Ms Mizzi said. "It seems the prerogative of leaders to state their intentions recently, so in this respect, I will close Din l-Art Ħelwa's 50th General Assembly by saying "I will be voting 'NO' on 11 April."