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Communications |
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Speech delivered by Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment George Pullicino during the Regional Workshop on the State of Beach Management in the Mediterranean |
Date:
10/06/2005
I welcome you to this event organised by the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Insular Coastal Dynamics on behalf of the Priority Actions Programme Regional Activity Centre of the Mediterranean Action Plan.
It is with great pleasure to welcome this working relationship between Malta and the PAP/RAC following the successful implementation of the CAMP Malta project that was finalised in 2002. That exercise highlighted the need for action towards beach management especially with regards to Tourism and Health.
The need for appropriate measures to manage Mediterranean beaches is recognised, yet the actions employed in implementing such measures are not always easy to undertake especially if a sectoral approach is undertaken and actions focus either on providing facilities for visitors or deal only with habitat protection.
Beaches are dynamic coastal areas and their equilibrium can be easily offset by inappropriate action that does not address the beach as a natural system. The sediment processes ensure that the beach itself acts as a buffer for coastal erosion. Important habitats are associated with beaches both on land where sand dunes shift and grow and underwater where sand provides an ideal habitat for sea grasses, namely Posidonia oceanica. The species that are found on Mediterranean beaches, as you well know, are various, with periodic visitors such as sea turtles, where beaches provide the ideal nesting grounds to ensure the continuation of the species.
But there are other migrant visitors, that travel large distances at times and in their millions, in search of these beaches. Tourists seek adequate space on the beach on which they can soak up the sun and an unpolluted sea in which they can bathe and partake in water sports.
The Mediterranean is the world’s leading tourist destination, accounting for one third of international tourism with the sector topping the list of foreign currency source in the region. Mediterranean coastal areas have been modified and altered for decades, to accommodate the needs of the tourism sector and in most cases have led to negative impacts on the natural processes and systems through the discharge of untreated sewage, the loss of sandy beaches and the continuous threat to local and regional biodiversity. This development has also led to a gradual deterioration of the Mediterranean coastal landscape and character, in itself a source of attraction to the visitor.
The responsibility to ensure a continuous improvement in economic performance whilst safeguarding the region’s biodiversity is ours; pro active measures to ensure a quality tourism product that respects the natural environment goes a long way in securing return visits especially if we keep in mind that there is an estimated doubling of tourism fluxes over the next twenty years. In recent years, tourism itself has produced a strong incentive for the protection of the landscape and the improvement of the quality of the environment.
The actions through which sustainable beach management can be implemented and is visible on the ground are manifold if a holistic approach is to be employed. A sound understanding of the characteristics of individual beaches in terms of the physical environment, land and sea uses can lead to a better understanding of the potential economic benefit that beaches can contribute to the respective nations and Mediterranean region as a whole.
Planners and environmental managers alike are constantly attempting to develop tools that can assist sustainable beach management to ensure better water quality, address litter management, ensure safety and safeguard important coastal habitats. I believe that this regional workshop will go a long way in building regional capacity for effective beach management through the novel technique to be presented.
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