Dear Members,

The elections are now past and partly thanks to our efforts, backed all the way by you, our supporters, the environment proved to be the lynch-pin this time round. The FAA committee has been working right through the rumpus, and round the clock, issuing no less than twelve press releases in the run-up to the elections. We also held meetings with political and church representatives, including the Prime Minister and a special, lengthy audience with the Archbishop, who is very environmentally conscious and most encouraging. We were also very privileged to hold a session with HE Mr. Michael Zammit Cutajar, Malta 's Ambassador for Climate Change who heads the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change based in Bonn , Germany .

We are elated to have registered a surge in membership in the past month and also very happy to tell you that we now have a full-time FAA official, Mr. Alex Borg who has been loaned to us for a year through the Government scheme of public service secondment to NGOs. Alex is primarily working on projects like the Tal-Papa Agro-tourism project where we are working to save this amazing heritage farm from being built up as yet more flats and garages. Alex is however also keeping our website www.ambjentahjar.org , constantly updated and we are always open to suggestion as to what further material or resources you would like us to provide.

Since we now have someone working full-time, we have had to set up a regular office which is located at 2, St. Mary Str. B'kara. This opens many new and exciting possibilities to us, but also means we now have a monthly rent to pay which means we need FUNDS! - More about that further down.

All our press releases are listed at http://www.ambjentahjar.org/pressrelease.asp and hereunder are the some of the latest headings:

- Record Tragic Tolls
- DPA Amendments welcomed by Civil Society
- Underground water threat given MEPA rubberstamp
- Abuse at Dwejra Gozo
- FAA calls for rescinding of Safi permit
- FAA urges withdrawal of permits that go against planning policy
- Time for Change at MEPA

Regarding the DPA Amendments, FAA has been on the forefront of discussions held between the Ministry for the Environment and environment NGOs. The resultant amendments to the Development Planning Act are a good step in the right direction, but are still in abeyance pending Parliamentary ratification.

Activities:

Air Pollution Lecture

In recognition of the various initiatives we have taken in favour of the environment, the U.S. Embassy has kindly made a visiting consultant, Ms Catherine Witherspoon, available for a public lecture to be held in cooperation with Flimkien ghal-Ambjent Ahjar.

Ms. Witherspoon is a U.S. expert in air quality management and research for the identification of the causes and impacts of air pollution on public health, social welfare and also the broader ecology issues. We therefore chose, as the theme of the lecture:

The Effect of Air Pollution on Human Health

We strongly feel that this is one of the most worrying issues presently facing us and we urge you to attend this lecture which will also be attended by officials from the various authorities responsible for this field; you will therefore be in a position to make them directly aware of your concerns or questions.

The lecture is to be held on Thursday 3rd April, 2008, at 6pm at the Robert Sammut Hall, Floriana
(between Scouts HQ & Argotti Gardens , opp Sarria Church )

QUIZ NIGHT

Do join us at this fund-raising event for Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar to be held on Saturday 12 April 2008 at 19.30 hrs at Mare Nostrum / Black Pearl, Ta' Xbiex.

A mixed platter of various hams, cheeses and biscuits will be served together with a glass of quality wine to each participant at a cost of € 15 per person.

We promise you prizes and FUN!

Group entries only: Minimum of two people per table and a maximum of six.
We're counting on you to bring your friends and come and support us - we cannot undertake certain work without funds! Please confirm participation by emailing contact@ambjentahjar.org texting or phoning Karen on 99492716 by 10th April 2008 at the very latest.

3/19/2008 Casorenzo Art School tree planting in B'Bugia in aid of OASI and FAA.

Earlier this month a tree-planting initiative was launched by the Casorenzo Art School of Birzebbugia. To a backdrop of lively jazz music many Casorenzo Art Studio junior students along with young passers-by designed and painted fabulously colourful leaf shapes which were then stuck to a large Tree of Life billboard. Discarded material was used throughout and recycled into beautiful artistic vignettes. FAA Chairman Paul Cardona leant a hand by planting one of two olive trees on the Birzebbugia promenade gardens where a carved stone plaque was unveiled to commemorate the young artists' involvement in the greening of Malta . Together with FAA, and with the cooperation of the Ministry of the Environment, Casorenzo is aiming for a large planting of more indigenous trees in the autumn of this year, planned to take place at Wied Blandun which is close to one of Malta 's most polluted areas.

Casorenzo's alliance with FAA brings with it great promise; the Tree of Life initiative will not only plant locally-grown trees near urban areas suffering the effects of air pollution but will also raise funds for the social and environmental work being carried out by Oasi and FAA. Furthermore, FAA and Casorenzo are already working hard to organise an art exhibition of artist C.S. Lawrence's work in Gozo, at the Sinclair Stevenson-Lindblad Art Gallery , to be opened by HE the US Ambassador, Ms. Molly Bordonaro, on the 3rd of May.

Congratulations:

To Engineer Marco Cremona who is partner to an invention which has just been
selected winner of the Malta for the Energy Globe Award 2007.

This invention makes use of latent (hidden) hydrostatic energy available in a water body to harness mechanical energy which can then be used to generate electricity. Marco is one of Malta 's established hydrology experts who also contributes various articles to the print media, and drafts various reports in his capacity as hydrology consultant. He also found time to pick up the Outstanding Young Person Award 2007 in the category of Scientific Development!

Finally:

In addition to the above, we have kept up our work in favour of various residents groups, to name but a few: Birzebbugia re. the Ghalqa tal-Papa and the illegal scrapyard, Attard re. the abusive quarries and the depriving of the open space near Villa Bologna, St. Julians re. the Palms mega-project, Mgarr re. the threat to residents' and schoolchildren's health posed by quarrying activities, as well as abusive developments, Sliema re. over-development, Mellieha re. various development threats and Qala re. the Hondoq project.

We are very happy to announce that we have held a very successful meeting with Mellieha residents with a view to forming the first FAA Local Group, which would work to improving the environment of the Mellieha area. Here we have to emphasize that we have been in regular and positive contact with officials from the Ministry of the Environment on various consultations and different subjects. One of these has been our idea to set training sessions for residents to be funded and organized by the MRAE and MEPA and we are happy to say that thanks to the cooperation of the authorities involved it looks like what would have seemed an impossible aspiration is going to materialize before long.

As you can imagine, all this work has required a lot of effort from the committee and once again we would like to ask those of you who can offer some help to come forward. We especially need a:

- Treasurer's assistant - someone who can devote some time to helping our treasurers' team
- Social and fund-raising - we are very limited in this area and need people with ideas, initiative and a little time to spare
- Secretarial - anyone who would be able to help the committee, especially in keeping in touch with members which has been very lacking due to pressure of work.
- Architectural - any person with a general architectural/planning background who could volunteer a little time to helping members with planning problems.

Please mark down our Thursday 3rd and Saturday 12th April activities - we look forward to seeing you there!

We thank all our members for their invaluable support.

Best wishes to all

The Committee

Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar