Tolga Temuge
Executive Director
Tolga Temuge was born in Turkey in 1967. After his graduation in Business Administration from Marmara University in Istanbul, he worked in international trade until he joined Greenpeace in 1994. He sailed on four campaign ships, mainly in the Mediterranean region, for two years. He co-founded the Greenpeace office in Turkey and worked as a Campaigner, Regional Logistics Co-ordinator and Campaigns Director in Malta, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus and Lebanon. Tolga also actively worked in the peace movement in Turkey and Iraq and is the co-founder of the Global Peace and Justice Coalition. He was also an active member and the international media co-ordinator of the World Tribunal on Iraq modelled on the Bertrand Russell Vietnam War Tribunal of the late 1960s. Tolga has been based in Malta since 2004 although still active in peace and environmental campaigns abroad. He was appointed Executive Director of BirdLife Malta in June of 2006.
Matthew Borg Cardona
LIFE Site Warden
Matthew has been a volunteer with Birdlife Malta for many years, working mostly with the youth section and carrying out various activities. He recently completed a Diploma in Agribusiness. He joined the LIFE project in February as the site warden at L-Irdum Tal-Madonna in Mellieha. His duties on the LIFE site include the rat eradication project, essential research work, site management, Yelkouan Shearwater ringing and guiding visitors at the project site.
Victoria Caruana
Administration / Membership Officer
Victoria Caruana has been working for BirdLife Malta for the past 14 years and she is lovingly called “Central Command”. She is a key person in the day-to-day running of the BirdLife Malta office. Before that, she was almost entirely dedicated to the upbringing of her two children and occasional voluntary work. She has a very cheerful, outgoing personality and a good sense of humour. The only thing that sparks her anger is cruelty to animals, which is probably why she has spent all these years dedicated to BirdLife Malta.
Nicholas Crockford
Development Manager
Following his graduation in New Hampshire (USA), Nicholas Crockford acquired an MBA from the University of Malta. His dissertation studied the implementation of sustainable practices in hotels and tourism. Prior to BirdLife, he was a Manager in the Product Development Directorate of the Malta Tourism Authority. Nicholas has extensive experience dealing with tourism/environment projects and he also played a leading role in developing the National Beach Master plan for Malta, which aims to conserve and improve Malta’s beaches by establishing a national beach management action plan and policy. He moved to BirdLife Malta because of a desire for his work to be more closely related to the field of environment.
Timothy Pace-Lupi
LIFE Project Administrator
Timothy, a plant pathologist by profession joined BirdLife Malta in January 2008. He previously held a one year joint research position at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (CIHEAM) and the University of Bari in Italy and later worked as consultant in plant pathology to the Ministry of Rural Affairs and the Environment in Malta. He holds a diploma in Agricultural Sciences and a specialized post graduate diploma and MSc degree in ‘Integrated Pest Management of Mediterranean Fruit Trees’. Timothy is truly devoted to the natural environment and considers Malta a gem rich in natural patrimony. Unlike other active environmental devotees under the umbrella of BirdLife Malta, Timothy intends on applying number crunching and good costing as his tactic to help Birdlife’s dreams materialise. He truly believes that making our environment economically sustainable and managing its natural treasures in a professional manner will attract various niche markets and in the long run safeguard its future for generations to come.
Dr André Raine
Conservation Manager
Dr André Raine was born in Bermuda, where he spent several years in the island’s Conservation Unit and was involved with the Bermuda Cahow Project (which has successfully brought one of the most endangered petrel species back from the brink of extinction). He undertook his BSc (in Wildlife Biology) in Canada and carried out both his MSc and PhD in England. His PhD, based at the University of East Anglia, studied the effects of agricultural intensification on an endangered species of upland finch. Dr Raine has extensive experience in overseas conservation issues, having carried out a long-term biodiversity project in Zambia and ornithological fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon, Vietnam and the Seychelles. He has a passionate interest in ornithology, holds a British Trust for Ornithology C-permit ringer’s licence and is the author of The Photographic Guide to the Birds of Bermuda.
Helen Raine
LIFE Project Manager
Helen Raine has an MSc in Conservation from University College London. She spent three years working as a Conservation Officer for Natural England, the UK government’s nature conservation advisor. This was a diverse role which included managing conservation initiatives on the eroding Suffolk coast, ensuring effective management of international designated sites and developing Biodiversity Action Plans for threatened habitats. She has a diverse background in overseas conservation projects which has included protected species work, conservation work in Kafue National Park, Zambia and an avian point counts project in the Peruvian Amazon. She holds a British Trust for Ornithology C-permit ringer’s licence and a UK bat roost visitor licence.
Marija Schranz
Communications Coordinator
With an honours degree in Communication Studies and a general degree in Sociology, Marija has chosen to combine these two disciplines by focusing on media and project work within the social science field. She joined BirdLife Malta in August 2007, having previously been employed with JRS, an international non-governmental organisation working with refugees and asylum seekers, and with the Social Solidarity Ministry in Malta as PRO. She feels that this has equipped her to have a good understanding of how both sides work. Marija was also very active in a number of organisations in Malta, covering the role of PRO for Amnesty International in Malta on a voluntary basis and being one of the founding members of the Anthropology Society in Malta. She feels that the environment is one of the principle areas of focus for the critical mass and this is one of the reasons she moved to BirdLife Malta.
Ray Vella has always had a passion for birds and since 1973 has been a member of the Malta Ornithological Society, then BirdLife Malta. During the period 1978 until 1985 he was living abroad, in Canada and Germany, where he continued his favourite hobby, birdwatching. His other great interest, that of trees led him to become the Foresta 2000 Ranger in 2004 where he has managed to combine both his hobbies into one, that of providing a typical Mediterranean Forest, where trees and shrubs can grow, and attracting birds in all seasons to rest and breed. The area will eventually cover 104 hectares of land, three times the size of Buskett, where one will be able to see for himself how the island once was, greener and more attractive to birds!