The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) has confirmed that permits are still being issued for camping at Comino’s Santa Marija bay “under specific conditions”. 

Times of Malta reported on Monday that tents had reappeared at a field in the bay just months after authorities promised an end to the environmentally damaging practice and said camping would only be allowed at a new designated site at Tal-Ful, close to the Blue Lagoon.

Under the Comino Natura 2000 management plan, camping at Santa Marija is meant to be prohibited to allow important habitats on the site to be rehabilitated. 

In a statement on Monday, ERA again said camping would not be allowed outside the new Tal-Ful campsite but added a new qualifier: “unless authorised by the authority”. 

Applications for permits for camping elsewhere, it said, would be “evaluated by the authority and are subject to various conditions”.

Back in January, following an enforcement crackdown at Santa Marija, ERA had said that “such activities adversely impact on the integrity of this Special Area of Conservation” and put up notices around the area specifically banning camping. 

But the authority insisted on Monday the statements in January referred only to “unregulated activity that was being held indiscriminately” and that “was leading to the degradation of the important habitats in the area”. 

Santa Marija is a former marshland and reed bed

Permits for camping at Santa Marija bay, ERA said, were now issued “under specific conditions” which included precautions to prevent environmental harm and to “respect the protection status of the area”. 

Further conditions include limits on light and noise generation, conditions for holding barbecues, as well as prohibitions of generators, liquid fuel and other combustible material, according to the authority.

ERA did not respond to questions as to how its decision to issue such permits tallied with the Natura 2000 management plan.

It also declined to comment on claims by campers who told the newspaper they had met with ERA officials and environment minister José Herrera after the crackdown and received assurances that a site at Santa Marija would again be designated for camping. 

Santa Marija, part of the Comino Natura 2000 zone, is a former marshland and reed bed, scheduled for its scientific and ecological importance.

Under the management plan, the camping area should be cleared and the site rehabilitated, allowing for the habitat of salt-resistant trees by the beach to move into the area it now occupies, and for a dune area to be extended.

The field where camping is now being allowed is adjacent to the former camping area, and forms part of a designated buffer zone around the protected site.

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