FOUR LOCAL EXPERTS
We have commissioned four local experts to ‘translate’ environmental science and
data into information suitable to those interested in economic and labour market
policy. They will present their dossiers during the symposium, and explain the
methodology used for their assignment during the training sessions. The four
‘translators’ are preparing briefs that focus on four socio-economic policy fields,
and which are important to Malta as well as most small island states and
territories: air/sea transportation, agriculture, tourism and fisheries.
A geographer by training, Dr Maria Attard (PhD,
University College London, UK) has been the Director of
the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable
Development at the University of Malta since 2009 and
has published extensively in the area of sustainable
mobility. She worked as transport consultant to the
Government of Malta 2002-2009, implementing a number
of national projects. She now coordinates the transport
research group within the Institute and is particularly
interested in research on transport modes, mobility
behaviour and patterns, policy, parking and road pricing,
and transport and climate change. She is Senior Lecturer
in the Department of Geography and services and collaborates with various
Faculties and Institutes within the University of Malta.
Mr Tony Meli is a visiting senior lecturer at the Division of
Rural Sciences and Food Systems within the Institute of Earth
Systems at the University of Malta. He is an agribusiness, land
use and landscaping specialist by training, holding a B.Bus.
(Agric.) from the Western Australian Institute of Technology, a
Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Management from the
University of Malta, and an M.Phil. from the University of
Dundee, Scotland, UK. In 1995, he was awarded a Hubert H.
Humphrey Fellowship to carry out professional studies and
training in environmental horticulture and land resource
management at Cornell University, New York. In his career with
the Department for Agriculture & Fisheries, he occupied various posts and was
appointed Director of Rural Development in 2003 where he helped secure €40M &
€100M in EU funds for the 2004-2006 & 2007-2013 Rural Development Programmes.
In 2008, he joined APS Consult as Head of Advisory Services, and is now engaged as
an Agricultural Policy Specialist with the Ministry for Sustainable Development and
Climate Change in Malta.
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Professor Andrew Jones is Professor of
Tourism and Hospitality at the Institute for
Tourism Travel and Culture at the University of
Malta, having joined the Institute from the
University of Wales, Cardiff, UK, in November
2012. He has been an active practitioner,
researcher and academic in urban and regional
planning, conservation, economic and cultural
regeneration
and
sustainable
tourism
development since 1981. He completed his PhD
on research investigating the relationship and
tensions between economic regeneration, the
environment and sustainable tourism markets.
He has carried out numerous consultancy projects relating to tourism and economic
development and has published a number of industry and academic articles, reports
and conference papers. In recognition of his research to the industry he has been
invited to participate in teaching assignments and international conferences in
Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia. He is currently editing Disappearing
Destinations, a book series commissioned by CABI International that is evaluating the
impact of climate change on tourism environments, the first of which was published
in 2011.
Dr. Leyla Knittweis holds a PhD in fisheries
biology from the University of Bremen,
Germany and was employed as a fisheries
advisor to the Government of Malta during
2008-2013. Over the last six years, Leyla
provided guidance for the Maltese national
fisheries data collection programme and
participated in numerous fisheries stock
assessment working groups. She coordinated
Malta’s participation in several EU research
projects on marine resource management
topics, including marine spatial planning, the
application of an ecosystem approach to
fisheries management, and mapping of
sensitive and critical habitats such as nursery
and spawning areas. Leyla is currently
working as a scientific consultant and recently coordinated the development of a
long-term monitoring strategy for the marine environment of the Maltese Islands as
required by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). She is affiliated to the
Department of Biology of the University of Malta as a research associate.
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