Malta

The Maltese archipelago is a block of limestone in the middle of the Sicilian Channel, almost without permanent fresh water or original forest, covered by garrigue, Mediterranean steppe and spectacular cliffs such as those of Dingli and Ta' Ċenċ. That aridity does not prevent it from being a key point in Mediterranean biogeography: its position between Europe and Africa makes it an obligatory stopover for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds in spring and autumn, and its cliffs hold seabird colonies of international importance, above all of Yelkouan and Scopoli's shearwater. The uninhabited islets, such as Filfla, keep isolated and differentiated populations of Maltese wall lizard. Underwater, the clarity and the submerged caves shelter groupers, moray eels and Posidonia meadows. The country has played a very visible part in the European debate on the hunting and trapping of migratory birds.