The Sustainable Wildlife Use Malta Academy is being launched soon by the hunters’ federation.

The federation said in a statement this morning that the academy’s initial goal was the development of a course that new hunting licence applicants had to undertake before taking the test to obtain their licence.

The course’s syllabus would include the knowledge of the relative hunting legislation; shotgun handling and safety proficiency; game and protected species field identification; code of conduct and practise ethics for hunters; and conservation and biodiversity issues and their impact on nature and on renewable natural resources.

All these, the FKNK said, were noticeably lacking in the local hunting licence test process. Eventually, and based on the same licence test principles, refresher courses for hunting licence holders were also envisaged.