A clean sweep at Rdum tal-Madonna

Imagine a job that combines the best and the worst of Malta. It's a chance to be outside in one of the most spectacular locations on the island and a chance to observe wildlife in its natural habitat. But it's a job with a darker side as well. Matthew Borg Cardona is a man equally blessed and cursed with this unusual calling.

He is the site warden for the EU Life Yelkouan Shearwater Project. The project site lies on a spectacular rocky area at the north-eastern tip of Malta, commonly referred to as Rdum tal-Madonna or L-Aħrax tal-Mellieħa.

Most of Matthew's day is spent observing the bird populations there, monitoring the special garrigue vegetation and talking to visitors to the site about the Yelkouan Shearwater (il-Garnija) that breed there every year. Malta has about 10 per cent of the world's population of these seabirds, so Matthew's work is internationally important. But there is a dark side to his job, one which requires rubber gloves, bin bags and a very strong stomach.

For several hours every week, Matthew has to pick up the rubbish that has been left behind by irresponsible campers and picnickers. Gathering food, nappies and human waste into bin bags is not an enviable task, especially when you feel like you are fighting a losing battle. After every weekend, especially from autumn to spring, the piles of rubbish left behind keep increasing. This waste is not just a health hazard and an embarrassing eyesore for tourists and locals alike; it is also posing a serious threat to wildlife in ways that one might not suspect.

So how does leaving rotting sandwiches and the like put wildlife in harm's way? The answer is simple: rats. These rodents were introduced to the Maltese islands centuries ago and have been thriving ever since on what humans throw out. Camping sites are the rats' version of heaven. When the campers stop coming to the site due to the weather and as the rat population grows out of control, these creatures start looking for new sources of food.

Rats can easily make it down sheer cliffs and into deep crevices and holes. At the bottom of these deep tunnels, they find the nests of the Yelkouan Shearwater. These birds evolved without rats as predators and the baby birds are virtually defenceless against them. For many years, almost no young Yelkouan Shearwaters survived in the area due to the infestation of rats and rubbish. The EU Life Yelkouan Shearwater Project is now working to deal with this problem and has undertaken a large rat eradication project. But the mountains of rubbish threaten to undermine the work that is being done as part of the project.

A fortnight ago, the Environment Ministry held an activity to mark Clean up the World 2007. As part of this initiative, Matthew was joined by 20 volunteers at Rdum tal-Madonna. Together, they collected 60 bin bags of rubbish in less than two hours. This surely highlights the scale of the problem in no uncertain way. The Yelkouan Shearwater Project will now be working with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to educate campers and picnickers about the dangers of leaving rubbish and to make sure that they take home exactly what they bring with them.

What do we hope to achieve? The total elimination of rubbish at this beautiful Maltese site so that everyone can enjoy it. We also want all Yelkouan Shearwater chicks to survive into adulthood. And last but not least, we need to eliminate the dark side to Matthew's dream job.

The EU LIFE Yelkouan Shearwater Project is the largest conservation initiative of its kind and sees the participation of three non-governmental organisations, four government agencies, and receives additional financial support from the EU, HSBC and Mepa.

For more information on the project, visit http://www.lifeshearwaterproject.org.mt/

Ms Raine is the EU Life project manager.