BirdLife Malta has called on the government to put words into action and give full protection to all Important Bird Areas in Malta and Gozo under the Natura 2000 network.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority noted that Malta has designated as much as 15 per cent of its territory as protected in terms of nature protection considerations, particularly in relation to the EU's Natura 2000 Network.
BirdLife Malta's executive director Tolga Temuge said the government continues to fail its citizens by falling short of EU requirements for nature conservation sites on the islands.
The conservation organisation pointed to Ta' Ċenċ in Gozo as being a case in point, being one of the six Important Bird Areas (IBAs) which are only partially covered by Special Protection Areas status.
The Ta' Ċenċ cliffs are home to a number of rare endemic plant species and significant numbers of breeding birds, including several rare or declining species.
In particular, Ta' Ċenċ is renowned for its internationally-important breeding colonies of seabirds, including the largest breeding colony of Cory's shearwater in the Maltese islands, 150-300 pairs of Yelkouan shearwater and the only colony of European storm-petrels outside Filfla in the Maltese islands.
Mr Temuge said it is unacceptable that the Maltese government continues to drag its feet by failing to designate all internationally Important Bird Areas into Special Protection Areas, as required by EU legislation.
The IBAs in question are actually very small areas and are internationally important for sea birds, he added.
"What confounds matters further is that the Prime Minister had placed the environment as a top priority for his current administration, going as far as to absorb part of the portfolio under his direct competence. The question therefore arises as to when this government is going to put words into action," Mr Temuge said.
He added that there a few areas that are not yet fully exploited by human activities in the Maltese islands.
Mepa categorically denied that Malta is falling short of EU requirements for nature conservation sites. On the contrary, Malta, as clearly indicated by the European Topic Centre for the EU Commission, has been actively working on nature conservation areas and is, in fact, the most advanced of the EU member states that joined the bloc in 2004, Mepa insisted.
With respect to the IBAs, Mepa noted that Malta has designated 12 Special Protection Areas, as published by Government Notice 112 of 2007. These cover a total area of 1,434.2 hectares.
On the claim made by BirdLife (Malta) in connection with the cliffs of Ta' Ċenċ, Mepa said the site was declared a Natura 2000 site in 2006 and is protected. Reacting to BirdLife's comments on the "six IBAs which are only partially covered by SPA status", Mepa said the six sites cover the coastal cliffs on the western side of Malta and Gozo.
These sites have been nominated in view of the sea birds falling under the Birds Directive that breed and nest in relatively inaccessible cliffs, on boulders and within cracks in the cliffs.
Mepa added that, notwithstanding this, Malta is still collecting scientific data on these and other sites so as to update the current information and propose additional sites, including marine ones, in line with timeframes established with the European Commission.