The Buonamico Award, the highest honour of the ERA Awards night, is inspired by Giovanni Francesco Buonamico, a 17th-century Maltese traveller, poet, writer, doctor, and naturalist.
Renowned for composing the second-oldest poem in Maltese, Mejju ġie bil-ward u ż-żahar, Buonamico made significant contributions to Malta’s natural history. His 1670 manuscript, Brevis Notitia, documents 244 species of wild flora, marking a milestone in local botanical studies. Though unpublished in his time and largely overlooked for centuries, his work has recently gained due recognition.
The Buonamico Award honours individuals whose contributions to the environment may have been similarly underappreciated, recognising those who, like Buonamico, leave a lasting legacy in environmental conservation.
Eligibility Criteria
- Nominees should be residents of Malta.
- Nominees should not be informed that they are being nominated for such award.
- Nominee should not be awardees of the previous Buonamico Awards.
- Nominees should not be currently employed by the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) or the Ministry responsible for the environment, or be members of their immediate families (partner, parents, children and siblings).
Award Criteria
- Through his/her own initiatives, work or research the nominee left a positive impact on the sector.
- The nominee’s actions and achievements benefited the environment or resources.
- The nominee may be undervalued, but still gave valuable input to academia, relevant entities and authorities in the environment and resources field.
- The nominee carried out work/projects of prestigious nature in favour of the environment and resources.
