Gibraltar to create an environmental heritage register

GIBRALTAR (Press release) Following on from the signing of the Environmental Charter, the Government has now released its Environmental Action & Management Plan (EAMP). The EAMP contains a series of action points and measures which the Government is committed to carrying out. The plan is set out within 7 main chapters – environment and development interface, habitats, pollution, energy,climate change, environmental heritage and environmental management. Each chapter outlines the overall Government goal in relation to that topic and then breaks it down further into more specific goals and the associated actions and
measures to be carried out in order to achieve those goals. The action points are to be met within different time frames: 12 months, 1-2 years or 3-5 years. Some of the main action points contained within the plan are:>

•  the introduction of legislation to ensure that all new developments include a minimum of 5% of total land area of the development as a green area
• the transfer and decomissioning of the old power stations to be replaced with a new state of the art, fully IPPC-compliant station
• the creation of a dedicated environment park in order to deal with all our various types of waste
• the development of local sources of renewable energy
• the reduction of the Government’s carbon footprint; introduction of low emission vehicles, hybrids and electric cars into the Government fleet
• the development an environmental heritage register

The policies and measures included within the EAMP are intended to bring about tangible improvements to our local environment. The plan will give the public a better understanding of the systems currently in place to manage our environment and how they can participate in local environmental decision making. The EAMP is intended to be a live document which, when necessary, will be reviewed by Government in order to ensure that it continues to meet the challenges presented and that it can evolve and develop as circumstances require it. The full version of the plan can be downloaded from the Government website.