L-Għadira s-Safra

This coastal wetland covering 0.8 hectares of land and is situated near the Għallis Tower in the northeast of Malta. Transitional coastal wetlands are typified by the presence of a brackish water environment (i.e. water having a salinity intermediate between that of seawater and freshwater) that is seasonal. The seawater replenishes these rock pools during the dry season, through wind and wave action. While in the dry season species that prosper in brackish conditions are therefore predominant, in the wet season the pools become a good habitat for freshwater species that tolerate seawater influence.

Such a fluctuating environment makes l-Għadira s-Safra a unique wetland supporting numerous, very rare and protected flora and fauna, including Riella helicophylla, a liverwort of European importance confined to this locality in the Maltese islands.

This is also one of the few sites where the living fossil (i.e. an organism which remained unaltered over millions of years as if its evolutionary process has halted), the tadpole shrimp, has been recorded.

This Natura 2000 site will be subject to the preparation of a management plan and/or legislation in the near future, as part of an EU-funded project that Mepa is undertaking for the management planning all the terrestrial Natura 2000 sites of the Maltese islands.