ERA honours environmental campaigners and green leaders with new awards
Environmental journalist Anne Zammit honoured with ERA’s Buonamico Award – four new awards introduced in 2025 edition
The Environment and Resources Authority honoured one of Malta’s long-standing environmental journalists with the Buonamico Award, which recognises individuals whose actions benefit the environment.
The ERA Awards, organised by the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) at the Verdala Castle, under the patronage of H.E. Myriam Spiteri Debono, President of Malta, spotlight individuals driving meaningful environmental change.
Anne Zammit (b.1953), an active member of Maltese environmental NGOs since her permanent move to the island in 1971, was awarded the Buonamico Award for her journalism on environmental matters, which until 2019 appeared as a bi-weekly column in The Sunday Times of Malta.
Once in Malta she fully immersed herself in conservation, joining local environmental societies, organising clean-up campaigns and launching environmental publications. She also became a member of the Malta Society for the Study and Conservation of Nature and the Malta Ornithological Society – later BirdLife.
During her speech after awarding the Buonamico Award to Anne Zammit, H.E. Myriam Spiteri Debono, President of Malta, recognised ERA’s role in promoting the conservation and safeguarding the local environment, and its efforts to create a generational change in mentality by fostering commitments to ERA’s mission from all sectors of society.
The President also emphasised the importance of ongoing discussion in Malta to engage and promote active and continuous interchange with citizens in the decision making process that directly impacts our natural and urban environment. It is this interchange that guarantees participation by the populace in decision making processes.
Nature educationalist Saviour Bonnici was awarded with the Special Recognition Award, for his indefatigable role in producing the documentary TV programme ‘Natura Maltija – WildLife Malta’ – now in its 12th year of production. His footage of rare sightings of Maltese weasels or the hatching of loggerhead turtle eggs have reached thousands of Maltese viewers and are used at the school he works in for the pilot subject of Nature Education.
ERA chairman Vincent Cassar hailed this year’s edition of the ERA awards as a special one, with four new awards introduced to recognise people and organisations for their contribution to Maltese biodiversity and environment, apart from the Special Recognition Award, which was introduced in the 2024 edition.
“The variety of projects and initiatives, as well as the diversity of our awardees, confirms the many different facets of the lived experience that is the environment, and the biodiversity that ERA strives to protect,” Vincent Cassar said.
The semiconductor giant STMicroelectronics Malta was awarded the Corporate Award for Environmental Innovation and Sustainability, for having saved over 100,000 cubic metres of raw water consumption through the recycling of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage, instead of being discharged into the public sewer system.
BirdLife Malta was honoured with the Environmental Stewardship Award, having led the restoration of the Salina Wetland, one of Malta’s rarest and most ecologically significant coastal habitats. The 11,300-sq.m wetland was restored following the removal of invasive plant species in favour of indigenous vegetation: in a landmark outcome, the Reed Warbler successfully bred in the area following an absence of 13 years – a clear indicator of improved habitat conditions.
The Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools received the Green Public Leadership Award for its redevelopment of Msida’s Achille Ferris Primary School, which was reborn as a greener, community-friendly space with new facilities, outdoor areas, and sustainability at its heart.
The St Dorothy’s Senior School in Ħaż-Żebbuġ was awarded the Green School ward for its EkoSkola committee. Awarded six consecutive green flags for its waste separation and food waste projects, the school has now developed organic farming methods for its vegetable patch. As the Award winners in this category ERA will be funding the school’s future project up to 10,000 euro.
Through this support the school intends to carry out restoration on an abandoned greenhouse and invest in systems to bring an old reservoir back into use. This will move their plans from paper to reality and they will be able to grow food in a truly sustainable way, while continuing to educate all students about eco-conscious agriculture, the impact of certain agricultural practices.
28 August 2025
