Dinja Waħda and Bank of Valletta together with a group of primary schoolchildren recently teamed up to clear litter from the Rdum tal-Madonna Natura 2000 site at L-Aħrax tal-Mellieħa to keep the rat population at bay.

Forty children from Mellieħa Primary and Mosta Primary B learned about the various plants and habitats while clearing litter, which attracted rats that preyed on the Scopoli’s and Yelkouan shearwaters’ eggs.

Malta is home to 10 per cent of the global population of the Yelkouan shearwater and to five per cent of the Scopoli’s. Around 500 pairs of Yelkouans breed at the Rdum tal-Madonna colony every year.

Rdum tal-Madonna is one of Malta’s richest Natura 2000 protected sites. These sites contain the most threatened habitats and species in Europe. There are more than 26,000 Natura 2000 sites in Europe, covering 18 per cent of the continent and surrounding seas.

BoV is once again collaborating with Birdlife Malta in its education programme Dinja Waħda, which reaches an impressive number of young individuals every year.

“The growing enthusiasm by schoolchildren reaffirms the positive values such a programme instils, helping them embrace environmental issues through entertaining and educational initiatives,” said the bank’s media and community relations head Vanessa Macdonald.

“After the activity, children planned to give presentations to the rest of the school so that their feedback would be spread to others.”

Dinja Waħda is Birdlife Malta’s and BoV’s environmental education programme for primary schools, carried out in collaboration with the Directorate for Quality Standards in Education. The site visit and clean-up activity at Rdum tal-Madonna was carried out with the support of the European Commission Representation in Malta.