ERA held the second edition of the Buonamico Award on Friday 20th April. This Award recognizes significant contribution by individuals to our knowledge on the environment.

This year, the ERA Board recognised the contribution and knowledge provided by three individuals. HE Marie Louise Coleiro Preca awarded the 2018 award, at the President’s Palace in Attard, to Mr. David Dandria for his contribution of our knowledge on entomology, Mr. Edwin Lanfranco for his contribution to our knowledge on local botany and ecology and Mr. Joe Sultana for his contribution to our knowledge on ornithology.

This National Award has been named after Giovanni Francesco Buonamico, who was possibly one of the first Maltese botanists, writing the first unplublished Maltese Flora in 1670.

The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) requires and relies on data of the local environmental resources, such as biodiversity, but which data may not be readily available. ERA is aware that a considerable amount of useful information and data has been, and is still being produced by persons who though not necessarily having received any formal scientific training, often dedicate much of their time to study one or more aspects of our environmental resources.

Bionotes of the honourees for 2018 are being included.

For further information, you may wish to contact [email protected]

DAVID DANDRIA

ENTOMOLOGIST

Born on 22nd December 1944 and married to Michèle (nee Conti), Dandria was from an early age interested in natural history, following in the footsteps of his brother Tony, who was one of the founders of the Malta Ornithological Society (now Birdlife Malta). In 1968 he was awarded a Government scholarship at the Imperial College of Science and Technology of London University where he graduated B. Sc. (Hons) in Zoology in 1971.

Dandria took up the post of Entomologist responsible for plant health in the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, through which he acquired a deep knowledge of Malta’s insect fauna and also studied other crop pests. He worked with several foreign experts and co-authored a number of papers on the plant parasitic nematodes of Malta. In 1984, together with the late Prof. Franco Lamberti and Dr Angela Capussi he published an Atlas of Plant Parasitic Nematodes of the Maltese Islands which included 17 species, most of them new records for Malta.

In the 1990’s Dandria developed an interest in Malta’s spider fauna, a field of study which had previously been given scant attention. In 1993 he co-authored a paper on the spiders of the Maltese Islands, later updated in a publication he made in 2005 with a checklist of the spider species then known from Malta, up to a total of 137 species. In between these two works, his studies on Maltese spiders included the discovery of a species new to science, including the Maltese linyphiid spider, Palliduphanthes melitensis (= Lepthyphantes melitensis); and the rediscovery of the arboreal habitat of the endemic and protected Maltese trapdoor spider, Nemesia arboricola, which had for a long time been thought to be possibly extinct.

Dandria was also a part-time lecturer in the Department of Biology at the University of Malta and an Agricultural Adviser within the Ministry responsible for agriculture in the years leading to, and immediately after, Malta’s accession to the European Union. He edited the scientific peer-reviewed journal The Central Mediterranean Naturalist, from 1993 to 2012, and contributed the Chapter on Arachnida (spiders, scorpions and related animals) in the publication Flora u Fawna ta’ Malta. He later translated this popular work into English, Wildlife of the Maltese Islands. A devoted environmentalist, he was Chairman of the Natural Heritage Panel of the former Malta Environment and Planning Authority (2006-2013) and  member of the Panel up to 2016. Dandria was also engaged as a Project Coordinator with EcoGozo (2011-2013), leading two EU projects AGRISLES and SIMBIOTIC.

Dandria is currently Museum Curator at the Department of Biology, University of Malta, and together with Prof. David Mifsud of the Institute of Earth Systems is working on the compilation of a complete checklist of Maltese arthropods comprising over 4,000 species.

EDWIN LANFRANCO

BOTANIST AND ECOLOGIST

Born on 21st September 1946 in Sliema, Lanfranco was educated at St. Elizabeth School, Stella Maris College, and St Michael’s College of Education. He furthered his studies at London University and graduated B.Sc. Special in botany (1973).

Lanfranco taught in primary (1968) and secondary schools (1968-1975), and at postsecondary institutions, including government sixth forms (1975-1987) and the University of Malta. He was a visiting lecturer in systematics and botany at the University of Malta since 1978, and full-time, mainly in botany and evolutionary biology, since 1988. Following retirement (2011), he continued lecturing on a part-time basis, mainly at the Institute of Earth Systems.

He is an author of many scientific reports, articles and papers in local and foreign journals; focusing most research on Maltese and Mediterranean floristics (including endemic, native and alien species, vascular plants, marine algae and fungi) and vegetational investigations of habitats, and has reported, discovered or rediscovered many species of plants for the first time in the Maltese Islands, including the first reference to the Maltese spider orchid as an endemic, later formally named Ophrys melitensis. He is the co-author of some endemic species, like the Maltese horned pondweed, Zannichellia melitensis; and was also globally recognised with the naming of the endemic Maltese Cliff Orache, Cremnophyton lanfrancoi (= Atriplex lanfrancoi), named in his honour, having been involved in its discovery and for his contribution to Maltese and Mediterranean botany.

He has also been instrumental in providing scientific information for the designation of protected flora and protected areas, through his contribution to the first lists of sites of conservation value in the Maltese Islands and rare and threatened species included in the Red Data Book for the Maltese Islands, which were both published by the precursors of ERA in the 1980s.

Edwin Lanfranco also served on the committees of several environmental NGOs dedicated to nature conservation and was president of the Natural History Society of Malta (currently, Nature Trust Malta) and is also an advisory and academic member of several local and foreign boards and committees on botanical and environmental matters and attended international conventions and conferences in several countries. He has and is assisting ERA in various work voluntarily and has also carried out and participated in various consultancies, particularly for ecological reports and monitoring exercises. Apart from Malta, he also carried out fieldwork and lectured in other countries, mainly in the Mediterranean area.

Lanfranco is currently working on a new complete flora of Malta and continues casual lecturing and supervisions of dissertations and fieldwork projects with the Institute of Earth Systems, University of Malta.

JOE SULTANA

ORNITHOLOGIST

Born in Xagħra (Gozo) in 1939, he is married to Lucy (nee Sammut), and is father to Ruth and Mark. He started as a teacher with the Education Department in 1957 and retired as Principal Environment Officer with the Environment Protection Department in 2000. He served on the Board of Directors of the Planning Authority (1992–1997), as consultant at the Ministry of Environment (2001–2002) and Technical Advisor & Chairman of the Ornis Committee (2003–2006). Mr Sultana also participated in the formulation of legislation for the protection of sites and birds and was instrumental in setting up the Għadira and Is-Simar protected areas.

Sultana has volunteered for the Malta Ornithological Society (MOS), later BirdLife Malta, since its foundation in 1962, serving as Secretary (1967–1975), President (1976–1987) and Head of Ringing Scheme (1971–2002). He was also editor of Bird’s Eye View and IlMerill and authored or co-authored several landmark books about birds in Malta including A Guide to the Birds of Malta (1975), the Birds Chapter in the Red Data Book for the Maltese Islands (1999) and The Breeding Birds of Malta (2011), amongst many others.

Sultana’s studies and research ranged over a number of bird species especially the local breeding birds. He found seabirds of great interest and conducted research and data collection on the breeding colonies of seabirds.

On the international scene, Sultana served as Chairman of the ICPB’s (International Council for Bird Preservation) European Section (1985–1992), as World Council Member of BirdLife International (1994–1999) and Chairman of the Medmaravis Council (1995– 2011). Furthermore, during his Council of Europe appointments, he was a member of the Steering Committee on Conservation and Management of the Environment and Natural Habitats (1982–1994), Chairman of Naturopa Centre (1987–1998), member of the Organising Committee for European Conservation Year 1995 (1993–1995), and a European Diploma sites appraisal reporter since 2000. Additionally, he was also consultant to the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas for the Strategic Action Programme for the conservation of Biological Diversity (SAP BIO) project and the Action Plan for the Conservation of Annex II Birds (2001–2003).

Throughout the years, Sultana has been awarded with the Gouden Lepelaar (Golden Spoonbill) award by Vogelbescherming Nederland (Birdlife, Netherlands) (1993); the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Medal (1996); an Honorary Life Membership by the British Ornithologists’ Union (1999) and made a Member of Honour by BirdLife International (1999) for his significant contribution to bird and nature conservation.​

30 April 2018

The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) Board has today, 27 April 2018, taken three decisions as indicated below on the IPPC permits for the following applications

  • Renewal of the Amino Chemicals Ltd.           APPROVED
  • Full surrender of Crystal Pharma Ltd.            APPROVED
  • Application for IPPC permit Greenskips Services Ltd./ G.S Rec Ltd APPROVED

The permit for the Amino Chemicals Ltd., covers the continued operations of the installation whose main activity involves the production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs).

The permit for Crystal Pharma Ltd., covers the full surrender in relation to the cease of operations of the site, the site closure and decommissioning and dismantling of structures on site.

The permit for Greenskips Services Ltd./ G.S Rec Ltd., covers the operation of waste management facility which includes the temporary storage and/or repackaging of waste prior to treatment/disposal/recovery at other facilities.

The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Regulations require certain facilities to obtain a permit from the Authority covering their operations.

The IPPC permits issued cover a number of environmental obligations which operators are to fulfil throughout the validity of the permit as well specific conditions related to dismantling operation so as to ensure the required level of environment protection.

All public consultation documents are available on the ERA website for Amino Chemicals Ltd., for Crystal Pharma Ltd. and Greenskips Services Ltd./ G.S Rec Ltd.

For further information contact Claire Cordina Borg on [email protected]

 ​

Malta Marine Monitoring Consortium (M3C), comprised of AIS Environment Ltd (Malta) and AZTI Tecnalia (Spain), have been commissioned by the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) to take on the project entitled “Implementation and updating of marine monitoring programmes, assessment of environmental status and development of a marine database system.”

The ultimate goals of this European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF 2014-2020) project are to devise a holistic approach towards marine monitoring and develop a comprehensive database of data collected about the Maltese waters. The database will be supplemented by relevant datasets obtained from numerous stakeholders and will be made publically accessible.

Marine waters are facing increasing pressures from human activities, which leads to the deterioration of the marine environment. Concrete data and information from the project will be used to develop better management practices to address these pressures. The project will assist in the implementation of Malta’s obligations as an EU Member State in relation to the marine sector.

As part of the project tasks, M3C are required to hold four stakeholder workshops and a final conference in order to disseminate knowledge garnered through the project’s implementation. The workshop held on 6th April, 2018 was the first of the four seminars to be held as part of this project. The main objectives of this particular session were to:

  • Introduce the project and its main objectives
  • Outline the progress of the project and some preliminary results
  • Describe the proposed database and its purpose
  • Invite comments from the attendees relating to the project components​

Representatives from the ERA (Tamara Micallef and Lydia Koehler) and M3C (Yasmin Schembri) presented an introduction to the project and its relevant policy background. Entities such as MESDC, Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Transport Malta, Planning Authority, Water Services Corporation, Department of Agriculture, Environment and Health Directorate, MCCAA, Malta Marittima Agency, Wasteserv, MGOZ, Funds & Programmes Division and University of Malta were represented at the workshop. The seminar was closed off with a Q&A session during which some comments were put forward by the attendees, most notably regarding the monitoring frequency and database.

 The results of this project, including stakeholder feedback, will contribute to effective management and sustainable use of marine resources, for the benefit of the environment and of all marine sectors. Through this project, the environmental status of Malta’s coastal water bodies will be assessed, which will enable ERA to continue working towards achieving Good Environmental Status in our marine waters.

The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) is expected to absorb the full €1.6 million in public eligible EMFF funds (75% EU 25% MT), which were allocated for the implementation of the marine monitoring programme. ​

The Mediterranean Killifish and the Maltese Freshwater Crab were declared as National Species to compliment current flagship species for Malta’s biodiversity. A number of National Species had been declared in Malta in the past, namely the National Plant – Maltese Rock Centaury, the National Tree – Sandarac Gum Tree and National Bird – Blue Rock Thrush. However, such declarations are now substantiated by legal provisions.

In this regard, the establishment of a legal framework for the designation of national species was appropriate and necessary. Through this framework, ERA does not only officially designate these species, but also includes criteria for future selection of further species of flora and fauna as national species under the Environment Protection Act (Cap. 549).

The regulations also strengthen the level of legal protection of these species by increasing the penalties for contraventions against such national species. In addition, the regulations promote the conservation, surveillance and monitoring of these species.

The new Species Protection (Designation of National Species) Regulations (S.L. 549.120) came into force on the 23rd of January 2018. The regulations are available here​.

The scientific instrument measuring the level of particulate matter 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5) or less at Żejtun Air Monitoring station is giving anomalous readings due to technical problems, and therefore should not be cause for alarm.

In view of this, the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) is currently conducting tests on this PM 2.5 analyser. The PM 2.5 data has been disabled for the duration of the testing. Notwithstanding this, the Żejtun Air Monitoring Station will still continue transmitting the rest of the air monitoring data 24/7.

Third-party websites, such as the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) website, may still be showing data that is automatically sent by ERA’s stations. This data includes the PM 2.5 data from the faulty analyser. The correct data will be transmitted once the issue has been solved.

ERA will issue an official notification once the system is fully functional.

Presently, ERA runs four automated near real time Air Monitoring Stations that are situated at fixed sites: a traffic site in Msida, an urban background site in Żejtun, an urban site in Attard and a rural background site in Għarb, Gozo.

ERA’s Air Monitoring Stations determine concentrations of most pollutants every 15 minutes, giving ERA a continuous overview of air quality. The Air Monitoring Stations stations cover all pollutants requiring monitoring and reporting under the Ambient Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) and the four Daughter Directives (2004/107/EC). These include ground-level ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, gaseous mercury, particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) and meteorological variables, such as wind speed and direction.

ERA’s air monitoring data is accessible online here.

Following the public call for the post of Chief Executive Officer, the Board of the Environment and Resources Authority appointed Dr Louise Spiteri to occupy this post with immediate effect.

Dr Spiteri is specialised in environmental law. She was an assistant lecturer at the University of Malta with the Department of the Law on Environment and Resources.

Dr Spiteri studied at the University of Malta, where in 1999 she was awarded a degree in Law and two years later she was awarded a Magister Juris Degree in Public International Law. In 2000 she joined the public sector as a legal officer with the Department of Environmental Protection. In this role, she participated in the negotiation of a number of EU environmental laws. She was also appointed as Secretary of the National Board for Sustainable Development, established in March 2002.

In 2003 she joined the diplomatic body in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Here, she followed international legal issues and EU affairs. In 2005 she was engaged as lawyer linguist with the European Court of Justice. And in 2007 she joined the Attorney General’s Office and dealt with EU negotiations and infringements brought infront of the same Court.

During the years 2011 and 2013 she acted as President of the Council for the Professions Complementary to Medicine (CPCM) and President of the Appeals Committee. Currently, she is a member of the European Legal Experts Forum on Climate Change Adaptation.

Dr Spiteri published articles on environmental law and has also coordinated several EU projects and programs.

The ERA Board congratulates Dr Spiteri in her important role within the Authority, and in her work as the main environmental regulator.

The Environment and Resources Authority is issuing the following statement in relation to the abandoned quarry in the limits of Siġġiewi, known as Magħlaq quarry.

This quarry is subject to an environmental permit to restore the quarry. Following an inspection carried out by ERA on 1 February 2018, officers observed that inert material was being stored in an area that is not permitted for this purpose.

Immediate instructions were given to the operator to submit a method statement to clear the area by removing the said material. The time-frames proposed by the operator to clear the area were not to the satisfaction of ERA. In this regard the operator was instructed to remove the material by mid-March.

ERA will continue to monitor the site to ascertain compliance.

 

Officers of the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) attended to an injured turtle encountered whilst during their surveying works on the shingle beach at Fomm ir-Riħ. The officers responded quickly to the stranded turtle, by informing the relevant entities and caring for the animal until the NTM volunteers arrived on site, who then transferred the injured turtle to the San Luċjan facility, manned by Nature Trust Malta.

L-Awtorita` għall-Ambjent u r-Riżorsi tixtieq tinforma l-pubbliku illi għall-ħabta tal-16:00 rċiviet rapporti ta’ tniġġiż fil-bajja ta’ San Ġorġ u l-madwar ġewwa San Ġiljan, fejn minnufih intbagħtu uffiċjali tal-istess Awtorita` sabiex jispezzjonaw is-sit.  Irriżulta illi waqt li kien qiegħed isir xogħol f’sit ta’ kostruzzjoni, daħal ilma illi tħallat mat-trabijiet f’dan is-sit u niġġeż l-inħawi tal-madwar meta ġie mbattal is-sit. L-Uffiċjali tal-Awtorita` intervjenew minnufih sabiex b’mod immedjat jitwaqqaf kull xogħol li kien qiegħed isir, filwaqt illi ordnaw sabiex is-sitwazzjoni tiġi rettifikata mill-aktar fis possibli.

L-uffiċjali tal-Awtorita` għadhom fuq il-post sabiex jassistu fl-investigazzjonijiet mill-awtoritajiet konċernati.

 

With reference to the article titled “Law Enforcement on holiday” penned by Ms. Anne Zammit dated 14th January 2018, published on the Sunday Times of Malta and the online news portal, ERA would like to clarify that the operations of its Enforcement Unit were not interrupted during the festive seasons. In fact, ERA handled 12 enforcement-related cases during this period. Some of these cases were lodged through the automated system.

ERA clarifies that the automated voice recording of its emergency contact number informed callers that the lodging of environmental emergencies was indeed still operative.

Adverts informing the general public which ERA functions (in addition to the enforcement function) would remain operative during the shutdown period appeared on various newspapers. This apart from being featured prominently on the ERA website for the whole period.

Claire Cordina Borg
Unit Manager National Affairs
Environment and Resources Authority (ERA)