The Physical Oceanography Research Group (Department of Geosciences, University of Malta) organised a workshop, in collaboration with Malta Marittima Agency, Malta Council for Science & Technology and AquaBioTech Group, entitled ‘Safeguarding the Marine Environment Together – Bridging Conservation and Stakeholder Uses in the NE Marine Protected Area’. The activity was organised within the MED Programme project ‘Actions for Marine Protected Areas’ (AMAre) and was earmarked as an EMD in My Country 2019 event, one of various local events organised to celebrate the European Maritime Day this year.
The North-East Marine Protected Area (MPA) covers an area of 155.2 square kilometres, extending from San Dimitri Point along the northern shore of the island of Gozo to the Comino channels and further to Il-Qaliet along the north-eastern coast of Malta, equivalent to four per cent of Malta’s territorial waters. This MPA hosts more than 80 per cent of the priority habitat posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows found in Maltese waters, besides other protected marine habitats including reefs and caves, as well as a number of iconic marine species endemic to the Mediterranean, such as the Noble Pen Shell (pinna nobilis), the long-spined sea urchin (centrostephanus longispinus), the star coral (astroides calycularis) and the vulnerable Mediterranean coral (cladocora caespitosa). It is not a closed or reserved marine space, but indeed the playing field for key activities – primarily shipping, tourism, fisheries, infrastructure, bunkering, and aquaculture – constituting economic assets in the local marine and maritime sectors. The conservation and management of such a designated marine area is, understandably, challenging.
The workshop was designed bearing these challenges in mind. The main aim was to engage participants from different stakeholder categories to jointly investigate possible solutions on how to meet conservation objectives without disrupting essential economic activities run by local communities operating in this marine domain. A total of 80 participants took part, including commercial and recreational fishers, divers, representatives of Transport Malta, Environmental and Resources Authority (ERA), Planning Authority, Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Aquaculture Directorate, Ministry for Tourism, Ministry for European Affairs and Equality (Funds and Programmes Division), Education Department, Malta Freeport, private entities and various NGOs, academics and other researchers.
In the opening session Aldo Drago, the responsible for the AMAre project in Malta and the workshop organiser, introduced the concept behind the event. This was followed by interventions from Saviour Zammit, pro-rector for Research and Knowledge Transfer at the University of Malta, and José Herrera, Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change. The full programme included high profile presentations from local and international experts including an intervention from Simona Fraschetti, AMAre project leader, who introduced the aims and achievements of the project. The programme tackled various aspects of MPA management and Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) in Malta. Project results were elaborated and presented, especially the marine geodatabase and a dedicated ROV survey on Sikka l-Balda.
The highlight of the day was the practical session held in the afternoon, which was a tailor-made exercise aimed to empower stakeholders in the appraisal of existing conflicts between different users within the MPA struggling for same space and depending on common resources, as well as to highlight human impacts that clash with conservation objectives. The main aim was to network the stakeholders and build dialogue and awareness on common issues. The participants teamed up to investigate possible solutions to meet conservation objectives without disrupting essential economic activities. At the end of the session, the stakeholders identified activities which impose the most significant conflicts with other activities and proposed possible solutions which were agreed upon by all parties.
This event was hailed as a unique opportunity by the participants, as it allowed them to discuss their views on a level platform, irrespective of their role within the MPA.