Environment Minister Mario de Marco has announced plans for the creation of a Nature Agency tasked with managing Malta’s Natura 2000 sites.
The new agency will be independent of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to ensure that the transparency and arm’s length relationship of the environmental regulator is maintained.
The agency would not detract from the work of those NGOs or other stakeholders already working in Natura 2000 sites that will continue to be responsible for such sites.
Malta has 34 Natura 2000 sites. The names of these sites alone evoke the bygone beauty of so much of the island’s countryside. Il-Magħluq tal-Baħar, Il-Qortin tal-Maġun u l-Qortin il-Kbir and Ras il-Pellegrin sa ix-Xaqqa join the better known Ta’ Ċenċ, Filfla, Pembroke Ranges, L-Għadira and others as areas where different species of plants and animals interact with each other and with their natural habitat to form unique eco-systems needing protection.
Natura 2000 sites account for almost 14 per cent of the country’s territory, compared to a European average of about 20 per cent. But when one considers that, over the last 35 years, agricultural land – the island’s only remaining unspoilt...
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