The country breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday when the Environmental and Planning Review Tribunal shot down an appeal on a proposed retirement home deep inside the picturesque Wied Ghomor valley.
The application had already been rejected by the Planning Authority board back in 2016 but the valley - one of the last remaining green lungs in the central part of the country - was again threatened when an appeal was filed.
The EPRT decision is now final, meaning that this particular development cannot take place.
But this does not mean that that the siege of Wied Ghomor will not continue. In fact, the area has seen an unprecedented number of planning applications over the past few years.
This shows, among other things, that despite the PA's rejection of the applications put forward so far, some developers still see Wied Ghomor as fair game, and do not give up on the dream that they will someday be able to construct something artificial among the valley's natural beauty.
This in itself reveals a deeper rooted problem - it shows that certain developers will stop at nothing and will do everything they can to keep building concrete and stone structures on our last remaining green areas. It means that, for them, no part of this country is out of bounds for construction, and they will keep trying and trying, hoping that they will be successful in the end.
This is why both planning policies and mentality should change. It has to be made clear once and for all that our valleys are places where all forms of development are forbidden. Period.
Environment Minister Jose Herrera has said that he intends to apply for Wied Ghomor to be declared public domain. That initiative is commendable, but it has to be treated with urgency and extended to other green areas around the country.
The EPRT's decision was welcome one indeed - a victory among many recent defeats for the environment. People have said that common sense has prevailed. That might be the case, but it is imperative that the same form of common sense also prevails in other cases.
The shrinking agricultural land between Bulebel and Zejtun is another area of ecological and historical importance, a rare green lung in this heavily polluted part of the country, that needs protection.
The same principles that guided the PA and the EPRT to refuse the proposed development at Wied Ghomor should be applied to reject the proposed extension of the industrial estate at Bulebel.
They should be used to reject the proposal to construct a fast food outlet on ODZ land in Zabbar, and any development at Zonqor Point in Marsascala.
The government this week launched a public consultation on a National Agricultural Policy.
Speaking at the launch Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said Maltese farmers have less land than their European counterparts and said the government would begin a process of seeing public land get back into the hands of farmers for agricultural purposes.
While this statement is most welcome one would hope that we do not end up in a situation where the government returns land in some areas to make up for other parcels of land that are being stolen in others.