Photo: Prize presentation day for the CORALLO project ocean literacy competition, organised recently for all local students to promote the living and geological assets of our Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as well as the sustainable enjoyment of the same protected areas. Representatives from the University of Malta, the ERA, Heritage Malta and the IOI were present on the day to mete out prizes to the authors of the winning submissions. Photo/s: Shaun Baron, ERA.
The CORALLO project ocean literacy competition organised for all local students reached its culmination earlier this week with awards being presented to the winning submissions. The competition was organised with the aim of fostering greater awareness within the younger generation of the living and geological assets endowing our Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as well of promoting sustainable enjoyment activities within the same protected areas. Submissions were received within three different categories – videos, photographs and artistic models – depicting aspects of the Għar Lapsi-Filfla coastline as well as of the MPA extending along the north-east coastline from St. Julian’s to the north Gozitan coast.
The project will run for 30 months, till 13 May 2023, with a total budget of slightly over 1.5 million euros. The three Maltese partners on the project have a combined budget exceeding 800,000 Euros.
From an international perspective, the project is consistent with the UN’s Decade for Ocean Sciences (2021-2030). From a European perspective, the project is consistent with the Green Deal and the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy, which was rolled out in May 2020. From a local perspective, the project is consistent with ERA’s obligation to conduct a dissemination strategy for local marine Natura 2000 sites, which collectively cover a total area equivalent to 35% of our Fisheries Management Zone (FMZ), in excess of 4100km2 , or 14 times the terrestrial area of the Maltese archipelago CORALLO is coordinated by Prof. Alan Deidun from the Department of Geosciences, with the direct participation of Dr Adam Gauci, Mr Johann Galdies, Mr Marco Iannacone and Ms Jessica Busuttil as well.
The project builds on the legacy of a previously-funded Italia-Malta project – PANACEA – which also saw the participation of Prof. Alan Deidun, completed in 2013, and which saw the opening of the first-ever marine environmental education centre in Dwejra, Gozo, a centre which was bestowed in August 2019 with the Gozo Tourism Achievement Award. Iconic species and habitats found within the marine Natura 2000 sites interested by the project will feature within the dissemination material to be produced. The project aims to contribute to the responsible enjoyment of local marine NATURA 2000 sites (MPAs) through a diverse array of edutainment tools which represent both an awareness-generation resource as well as a means of informal education for a varied spectrum of audiences. These edutainment tools include both non- mobile/fixed assets and mobile ones, which will be installed, with the consent of Heritage Malta and the MTA, within four of Malta’s most iconic public Museums located on the coast or in close propinquity to local Natura 2000 sites – i.e. the Malta Maritime Museum in Borgu, the Natural History Museum in Mdina, the Ghar Dalam Museum, the Hagar Qim/Mnajdra visitors centre and the White Tower Bay museum.
Further information on the CORALLO project can be gleaned from the website as well as from the project’s .
