Chapter 8 : the intensification of the agricultural landscape of the Maltese Archipelago

Abstract

Bowen-Jones et al. (1961) in Malta: Background for Development furnish the reader with a prophetic edict which carries the threat of environmental catastrophe unless there is continual human investment. This book provides an unparalleled geographic assessment of the Maltese agricultural economy, in the years prior to independence, and still serves as a compendium of knowledge and terminology nearly sixty years later. The authors’ opening gambit recognizes the swell in national identity and the resulting desire to exert more control over the nation’s socioeconomic direction. However, their opening tonality also expresses an awareness of the influence of development and its potential threat moving into the future, thus directing the authors to the formation of a study that facilitated a greater understanding of the interplay between socio-economics and the landscapes of the Maltese Islands. [excerpt]