ESG PRESS RELEASE RE BRUSSELS AND
LA LINEA FISHING PRACTICES

15th March 2012

The ESG is concerned about a Brussels decision announced by La Junta de Andalucía in February 2012 that will allow fishing fleets in Andalucía to continue seabed raking, an environmentally damaging fishing practice, to be carried out inside the normally forbidden zone of 0.3 miles to shore.

An article in La Linea Digital (see link at end of press release) advised that La Linea de la Concepcion, Estepona, Velez and Fuengirola have a total of 269 licensed vessels between them for this type of fishing which employs a total of 700 people.

It is very distressing to read that this unsustainable practice, recognised as disastrous for the survival of coastal marine species, and outlawed elsewhere in Europe, has nevertheless been given a moratorium to operate in these areas which has implications for Gibraltar’s waters.

Coming at a time that the Gibraltar Government has stated it will stand firmly by the 1991 Nature Protection Act the ESG hopes that the issue of illegal sea bed raking can also come under the spotlight for adequate regulation enforcement within Gibraltar’s protected areas.

Link at: http://www.lalineadigital.es/2012/02/las-embarcaciones-de-marisqueo-de-la-linea-podran-seguir-faenando-cerca-de-la-orilla/

9TH March 2012

GROWING PETROCHEMICAL BUSINESS IN THE BAY AND STILL NO
TRIPARTITE PROCESS

ESG is most concerned with news of a massive fuel farm setting up in Algeciras, as confirmed in the Spanish and local media this week. Vopak Terminal has set up a total of 22 tanks with over 4million ton capacity in a bid to “compete” with Gibraltar for bunkering business. This new industry comes at a time when cross border co-operation under the Tripartite Process is at an all time low.

In 2009, during the 3rd Ministerial meeting of the Trilateral Forum, a communiqué was issued citing the need for greater co-operation at cross border level on matters of environmental protection. This protection was intended to address: “pollution from maritime activity and traffic, bunkering operations, industrial emissions and water discharges, waste disposal and land reclamations, among others. This co-operation was intended to take the form of liaisons, establishment of contact points and urgent means of communication, rehearsed co-operation in co-ordinated incident response, and other means. (see 2nd para, Pt 6 Communique 21.07.09). No such co-operation exists today at a formal level, yet heavy industry continues to grow increasing risk to people and the environment.

The Vopak fuel depot carries a significant environmental and safety risk, and such a project demands detailed transfer of information at a cross border level – This relates to Environmental Impact Assessments as well as response preparedness in the event of accidents.

The ESG asks whether the Gibraltar Government has been presented with an Environmental Impact Assessment for this fuel farm and if not that it should demand this information from the Algeciras Authorities, if not directly, then via the European Commission.

The ESG hopes that the Tripartite framework set up to address critical issues affecting Bay citizens and environment can be taken forward to safeguard our future against the ever increasing and unsustainable petrochemical industry.

Western Beach sewage levels continue to be high and of concern. Checking out the Environmental Agency website confirms levels of EColi and coliforms to be going through the roof.

Check out:-
http://www.environmental-agency.gi/beachresult.php?beachid=6

The ESG understands that the new Government of Gibraltar is addressing this situation. The ESG will also be highlighting the deteriorating water quality to MEP Sir Graham Watson who has worked so hard on this issue on our behalf in Brussels to date.

TODAYS RADIO NEWSLETTER COVERS:

KENYA’S WANGARI MAATHAI – BUCKET BRIGADE IN EUROPEAN COMMISSION CIRCLES – DPC – ESG AND GOVT – ESG AND LECTURES –

To begin with, on International Women’s day, we thought it entirely appropriate to remind listeners of the extraordinary achievements of the late and remarkable woman from Kenya, called Wangari Maathai. Wangari was an activist whose Green Belt movement enabled poor women to plant 30 million trees. In 2004 she was handed the Nobel Peace prize, the first African woman to be so acclaimed for her efforts to combat deforestation and promote women’s rights. A truly incredible role model.

On another matter the ESG was pleasantly surprised to read in an official European Commission Environmental journal, how environmental citizens movements can be extremely helpful in supporting official data gathering to clean up pollution and the environment. They cited the Bucket Brigade as an example. Well many will be aware that we set up a cross border Bucket Brigade movement in 2004 and collected air samples of Refinery pollution which we presented to the European Commission at the time, in 2005.

We are now contacting the article’s author to advise him that the bucket technology and citizen campaign is alive and kicking in Europe too. We shall also let Denny Larson know who, we are sure, will be pleased to hear his work is recognised in an official capacity. We shall post more information on this story on our website shortly including a reaction from Denny Larson himself!

Moving on, we would like to remind listeners that the next DPC meeting will take place on Tuesday 27th March at 9.30am at Charles Hunt Room. Remember to check out the agenda on the Government website in case there is any issue of interest to you.

We are busy meeting with the new Government and sharing our concerns and information and are hopeful that we shall see some major environmental changes in the not too distant future.

The ESG has also delivered a series of lectures to schools, Gibraltar college and associations and invite anyone listening who would like to have an environmental talk by our group to please contact us at 200-48996, or 54960000. Also email esg@gibtelecom.net with any enquiries.
Thanks for listening

Hello, in today’s Radio Newsletter, we would like to share with you some of the issues of interest and concern to the ESG and its members.

Firstly, we wanted to highlight some of the field work we are doing related to Clean up the World, one of our key awareness campaigns. Talks and Film screenings on this campaign are ongoing, most recently to the Governor, his wife, and staff, who between them tackled a large project in the Botanic Gardens in preparation for the development of exciting, new projects. These are to be run by the Wildlife Park. More talks are underway to schools, clubs, and the Gibraltar College on local environmental issues, Climate Change and the Clean Up itself.

We have also been surveying many of the CUTW hotspots and find that, in general, most appear to be relatively clean. However, a few, like Green Lane, or the Skate Park, are in a shocking state. A full report is now being finalised, will be published on our website and sent to Government.

The ESG role within the DPC is also beginning to take shape with applications coming before the Commission requiring ESG assessment, follow up and delivery of our position to all ESG members. For us, the need for review of the Planning Act and Policy and implementation of the environmental guidelines set out by the impressive Strategic Environmental Plan continue to be our priority here.

Issues such as installation of mobile phone technology in Gibraltar, and the new Tank Farm proposal for the Port area are some of our considerations here. These have highlighted to us the lack of holistic planning in Gibraltar, an issue that we are currently taking up with the new Government.

Finally we would like to invite those interested in visiting the waste separation plant at Los Barrios to call us and register. You can leave a message on 200-48996. The waste plant receives mixed waste from Gibraltar and Spanish towns on the Bay and carries out mechanised and some manual separation of waste into recyclable materials with the rest destined for landfill. Fascinating to see this at least the once!!

Duration of trip is approximately 3 hours including visit and some costs are involved, though not much.

Please call us!!

Thanks for listening.

24th February 2012

“The ESG continues to be very concerned about the high levels of raw sewage at Western Beach. A visit to the Env Agency website at:

http://www.environmental-agency.gi/beachresult.php?beachid=6 confirms the problem is severe and needs to be dealt with.

Given the Chief Minister is meeting with La Linea Mayor today to discuss cross border issues, we urge him to please raise this issue as a matter of priority.”

Visit Gibraltar Environmental Agency website at :- http://www.environmental-agency.gi/beachresult.php?beachid=6

With levels of sewage still registering high the ESG hopes that Government will be taking action to address this problem before the weather improves and people take to the seas to cool off!
We shall continue to monitor the situation and will call on Governemnt and Brussels to do whatever is necessary to tackle this problem once and for all

The ESG’s environmental awareness programme kicked off in 2012 with a private screening in January of our film on the CUTW Campaign to his Excellency the Governor and his team.

The ESG delivered a short presentation and showed the special film which features the Governor and his team hard at work at the Botanic Gardens as part of the community wide hands on event. Janet Howitt also presented a brochure to his Excellency containing media coverage of the efforts of the 500 plus volunteers working hard to help clean up Gibraltar.
The brochure, film and its message was well received and it is hoped that similar presentations will take place throughout 2012.

See: www.esg-gib.net and click on link on Home Page for an online version of the film

Click on following link for details of next DPC meeting to be held on the 10th February 2012 at 10.30am. You will note that we shall be raising concerns about the standards applied in Gibraltar concerning mobie phone technology.

http://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/images/stories/PDF/town_planning/DPC/DPC-Agenda3_10_02_12.pdf

The ESG has attended several meetings in recent weeks both with the Ministry for the Environment and the Development and Planning Commission.

With the Ministry for the Environment we can confirm that the meetings have, in the main, been extensive, detailed, and reasonably positive.
Clearly what will utlimately decide true progress will be in the concrete measures that the new Government will implement and we wait with great interest to see what these shall be. The ESG is also planning on holding a series of direct meetings with Government technical staff to discuss issues that form part of our core campaigns.

Last week saw the first public DPC meeting. The agenda was placed online and published in local newspapers but the details for subsequent meetings will only be placed online. We shall help remind our members and the public in general when these details are published.

At the meeting the ESG raised some questions of concern regarding some “minor” installations of telecommunication equipment, Maida Vale application, and then wider points under “any other business” when we asked where we could tackle review of the planning process itself, policy, etc.

We were advised that the DPC forum could be used for such purpose and that special focus meetings could be called for when particular aspects could be discussed. It felt like we were pushing on an open door and this was very encouraging. Both Town Planners were very thorough and professional in delivering information to the Commission.