BirdLife president Darryl Grima has explained why a group of NGOs in Malta have suggested including the environment within the country’s constitution.
A group of environmental activist organizations formulated a number of proposals related to the environment in the midst the ongoing electoral campaign. These proposals were directed towards the politicians currently making their pledges.
“The environment isn’t ours – what our role supposedly is within it is to make sure that we are taking care of it, to ensure future generations get to enjoy its’ benefits too,” Grima said during an interview on TVM’s Ta’ Filgodu.
“As a group of organisations, we joined forces in order for us to promote these proposals which at the end of the day, are for everyone’s benefit, not just the environment,” Grima said.
“We believe that the environment should be in Malta’s constitution – therefore the constitution of Malta will be able to protect the habitats or biodiversity which appear to be under threat,” he said.
Lovin Malta also reached Grima to learn more about the proposal and why he believes that it should be implemented in Malta.
“It means that any individual or eNGO will have the ability to take the government or even private entities up to court if they think that there is any form of decision, project, or action, that can lead to environmental destruction,” he said.
“We are guardians of the environment, and thus we should be obliged to care for it for future generations to come. And the environmental rights of future generations need to be safeguarded constitutionally not as we have at the moment, but by actual means of legal recourse,” he explained.
Anyone or anything that causes any harm to the environment could be subject to harsher penalties.
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