The Ghajnsielem Local Council is one of 12 European project partners participating in the Interreg IVC project called GreenInfranet and the Council recently hosted the project partners in Ghajnsielem, where the group held its Steering Committee and Monitoring Board meetings. The partners are working together to promote the development and implementation of green infrastructure in EU regions. This will be achieved through the exchange of experience and expertise and by identifying, analysing and transferring good practices.

The three-year project was launched in April 2012 and is co-funded by the EU programme INTERREG IVC.

The green infrastructure concept places biodiversity conservation within a broader policy framework in which primary nature conservation objectives can be achieved in closer harmony with other land-use objectives such as agriculture, forestry, recreation and climate change adaptation.

Green infrastructure also contributes to a sustainable economy by maintaining ecosystem services and mitigating the adverse effects of transport and energy infrastructure and of economic development in general.

The delegates were taken to visit areas in Gozo including the important Special Area of Conservation (SAC) of Dwejra, where they were given a guided tour of the site by Nature Trust (Malta) representative, Mr Mario Gauci.

They also visited the PANACEA Environmental Education Centre where Ms Annie Formosa, a volunteer with the San Lawrenz Local Council, gave an introduction about the project as well as a short video about the Marine Protected Area.

The Local Council hosted a dissemination event on green infrastructure, which was chaired by the Mayor of Ghajnsielem, Mr Francis Cauchi. The event included presentations from MEPA (Mr Darrin Stevens), Eco-Gozo (Mr Aldo Formosa) and the Natura 2000 project team (Ms Krista Farrugia, Adi Associates-Epsilon Consortium) as well as presentations from project partners from Emilia-Romagna (Ms Laura Punzo, Italy) and Flevoland (Ms Ingrid Henzen, the Netherlands).

A presentation on Ghajnsielem’s sustainable locality action plan (2011-2016) was also given by Eilis McCullough.

Gozitan and Maltese delegates were invited to attend and discuss issues related to green infrastructure in the Maltese Islands and Gozo in particular. The discussion centred largely on biodiversity conservation and Natura 2000 management planning, which is a national project currently ongoing.

The delegates discussed stakeholder consultation as an integral part of the management planning process and funding requirements for and within the new management plans.

A workshop was held for the project partners, during which partners discussed in more detail potential best practice transfers related to green infrastructure. As part of this process, the Ghajnsielem Local Council has paired up with the Emilia-Romagna project partner who will assist in the implementation of certain appropriate actions identified in the Ghajnsielem Local Council’s Sustainable Locality Action Plan (2011-2016).

The Ghajnsielem Local Council would like to extend its warm thanks to all the speakers that contributed to the dissemination event, Mr Vincent Attard and Mr Mario Gauci of Nature Trust (Malta), and the management of the Grand Hotel in Gozo.

Please see www.greeninfranet.org for more information.

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