Introduction

The Environment Fund is established under Article 32 of the Environment Protection Act (Cap. 549).

The Environment Fund is aimed at providing financial support towards undertakings of tangible environmental conservation projects, studies or initiatives that have the potential to achieve and manage the aims and objectives of the Environment Protection Act, remedial action to mitigate any harm caused to the environment or otherwise contribute to environmental protection in the Maltese Islands.

The Fund will help address the current increasing environmental challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss, by promoting sustainable management of ecosystems and make the importance for this effort more recognized by the community. The need for a major transition in society is imperative to help achieve a more sustainable future. This is feasible through the application of nature-based solutions, that is, using the properties of nature to resolve major environmental and socio-economic challenges.

For increased and sustained impact, the Environment Fund shall focus on financially supporting projects with a clear conservation and restoration focus using a green infrastructure mindset, to actively stimulate project applications which target degraded and/ or non-climate resilient environments to ultimately help turn natural capital into a source for green growth through the application of nature-based solutions.

The Environment Fund covers, but is not limited to, the following themes:

• Safeguarding ambient quality, including air quality, environmental noise, chemical and radiation;
• Using resources efficiently and sustainably, including stone, fresh waters, coastal and marine areas, soil, land and waste;
• Improving the local environment, including greening urban areas and quality of countryside;
• Biodiversity and nature protection;
• Geological, geomorphological, hydrological, edaphic and other features and areas containing them.

Logo Explanation

The logo displays a seedling enclosed in a circular border that symbolises the shelter and protection of its content, whilst portraying the letter ‘e’ reflecting the word ‘environment’.