The rehabilitation and restoration of limestone quarries in Malta (an alternative proposal)

Abstract

The Maltese Archipelago is geologically endowed by a generous yet limited deposits of limestone, considered to be the most important mineral resource in this country. Its origin is of an Oligocene and Miocene sequences formed in shallow waters, the oldest of which being over 25 million years old. These deposits have been exploited by the inhabitants for the past millennia principally as the main component of the building industry and in consequence landscape pattern has been drastically changed. In the last decade socio-economic factors coupled with a continuing strife and the ingenuity of mechanisation has accelerated the extraction of the mineral from the ground and timber from the woods, creating deep scars in the terrain and barren sun scorched landscape. The once lush evergreen sclerophyllous forest of Holm oak Quercus i/ex known to have dominated the land disappeared very shortly after man's arrival to these shores. Today just over half percent of the National territory consists of limestone quarries. Mainland Malta, the largest of the Islands has 123 registered active quarries whilst Gozo has 22 (Structure Plan, 1991). In the Brunland Report entitled "Our Common Future", sustainable development in any aspect of the environment is synonymous with resource management practices that ensure present utilisation of goods and services without jeopardising the source for future generations. In this context restoration of our geological and landscape heritage should undoubtedly mean their preservation and guarding against all those sources of anthropic disturbances that leads to their destruction or complete loss. Previous attempts of quarry reclamation have been mainly orientated towards providing sheltered agriculture land for fruit orchards which are highly susceptible to the local windy conditions. In this work I am proposing that restoration goals should be extended beyond the past traditional methods to provide society with as many benefits as possible without undermining the natural components of ecological framework. Under this directive however my definition of restored quarry sites and landscape shall not necessarily seek to establish the same dominant vegetative species, diversity or nutrient cycling rates that pre-existed nor imply the adoption of pragmatic approaches which may set limits to alternative goals.