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Malta's natural environments in peril

I found the following article on the WWW and I thought it might be
of interest to the group.  Does anyone else know about the
situation in Malta regarding the (remnants of) the natural
environment?  Are there plants endemic to this area that are
possibly being driven to extinction?
 
 Sean A. O'Hara                     sean.ohara@ucop.edu
 710 Jean Street                    (510) 987-0577
 Oakland, California 94610-1459     h o r t u l u s   a p t u s
 U.S.A.                             'a garden suited to its purpose'
 
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AQUAPHYTE ONLINE
Spring 1996 
(http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/aq-s96-8.html)

A Small Mediterranean 
Island Needs Help!
- an appeal from Sylvia Haslam 
 
I work partly in Malta, an island of less than 300km2, with 330,000
people (excluding tourists). What population density! What human
impact! Estimates of built-up area now range anything up to a third,
and most of the rest is farmed, mainly in small fields (down to c.
20x5m) on often-terraced slopes. What remains? There are karst
lands (semi-bare limestones) with garigue (very short woody plants
with herbs), there are stream beds, now mostly dried by groundwater
extraction. There are odd bits on building sites and by roads, the
occasional small copse of maquis (Mediterranean sclerophyll) and
little more. 

All is now falling apart. Up to the 1960s, most people lived in towns
and hardly ever left them. They have since colonised the countryside
in a big way, acquiring cars and other attributes of affluence, and,
naturally enough, they want country leisure activities. They have no
tradition or experience of rural affairs or sustainability. The rural
folk, almost a different nation, knew sustainable farming, but many
emigrated, and the minority remaining have become too affluent to
bother about keeping soil stable, repairing terrace walls, etc.,
activities once necessary for their survival. 

The result poses huge problems. There are still gems of natural and
historic heritage in the river valleys and elsewhere, but more of the
river valleys is dry, disturbed or both. 

Is anyone interested in studying the effect of excessive human
impact, as a warning for other places? Including the effects of habitat
fragmentation and loss on community, species and gene pools? 

There is no money available, so researchers would have to bring
their own grants. If coming for long enough, the University
Departments of Agriculture and Biology and the (Government)
Department of Afforestation and Horticulture welcome visitors.
(Afforestation is mostly planting trees in towns.) 

There is more here than I can do, and it is a worthwhile cause.
Would anyone like to investigate - while there is still something left
to investigate? If so, please contact, for further information: Dr.
Sylvia Haslam, Department of Plant Sciences, University of
Cambridge, England.

Dr. S. Haslam
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