Malta

Malta is an archipelago in the Mediterranean, the largest islands are Malta and Gozo. It is the smallest country in the EU with an terrestrial area of close to 315 km² and a marine areas more than 200 times larger at over 76 000 km² .. The highest point is Ta' Dmejrek at 253m. Malta has a population of 493 000 people and a population density of 1548.3 people per km².

Protected areas

There are a total of   protected areas in Malta,   Natura 2000 sites -   Special Protection Areas (Birds Directive) and   Sites of Community Importance (Habitat Directive) - as well as   sites designated under national laws.

The average size of protected areas in Europe is lower compared to other regions of the world. This largely reflects the high degree of fragmentation of the land in Europe due to urbanisation, infrastructure and general intensification of land use. At a EU level 50% of protected areas have an area of less than 1 km². The 10 largest marine sites account for 68% of the marine area, while the 10 largest land sites account for 41% of the land area covered by protected areas

Natura 2000 sites in Malta cover   species and   habitats from the nature directives. The number of species and habitats protected in each site varies depending on the location of the site, the biodiversity in the region, the designation being used, and the features the site is being created to protect. For   sites there is only 1 feature being protected with   sites having more than 20 features.

Protected species

Species protected in Malta under EU law are protected under the Habitats Directive and under the Birds Directive. The Habitats Directive has a total of 2 500 species on its list, the Birds Directive has a total of 500 species of wild birds protected.

Conservation status: Habitats Directive

 % of species are considered to be Good

 % of species are considered to be Poor

 % of species are considered to be Bad

 % of species are considered to be Unknown

Conservation Status by Taxa

Protected species composition by Taxa

Protected habitats

Habitats protected in Malta under EU law are protected under the Habitats Directive. The Habitats Directive has a total of 233 habitats on its list.

  habitats protected under EU law in Malta.

Conservation status: Habitats Directive

 % of habitats are considered to be Good

 % of habitats are considered to be Poor

 % of habitats are considered to be Bad

 % of habitats are considered to be Unknown

Conservation Status by Group

Habitat composition by Group

Ecosystems

Policy

MAES in Malta:

Malta has carried out a preliminary identification of key ecosystems and ecosystem services for Malta as part of Malta’s Fifth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity.  On the basis of this exercise, work has commenced to implement the measures relating to MAES in Malta’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2012-2020.  This work involves:  prioritising ecosystems and ecosystem services for mapping and assessment; determining the level of detail best applicable to Malta; identifying available data/data sources that can be used in this regard; Identifying data gaps that will need to be addressed; as well as identifying stakeholders/experts to be consulted in the process, in particular for selection of the indicators to be used.

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Green infrastructure in Malta:

Several of Malta’s policies explicitly address green infrastructure and connectivity and the government has introduced various policies to preserve Malta’s biodiversity.

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National Biodiversity strategy for Malta:

To report on progress to the EU 2020 biodiversity strategy, the European Commission extracted relevant information from the EU Member States’ 5^th national reports to the CBD. Of the 5 countries which had not finalized their national reports at the time of the synthesis (26^th of August 2015), Greece, Malta, Portugal and Lithuania provided information to be included in the synthesis.

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