The Maltese Indigenous Trees and Shrubs Nursery project administered by the FKNK has been chosen by the European Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FACE) as project of this month of March 2021 as part of the FACE Biodiversity Manifesto.

Every month FACE choses a hunting-related conservation project in Europe as its project of the month.

These projects highlight some of the many great initiatives hunters are undertaking to preserve biodiversity.

In 2019, in collaboration with another NGO, ACT, the FKNK partook in a national programme, Saġġar (to afforest), which aims to plant 1,000,000 native trees and shrubs from local native stock over a 10-year-term, in rural and urban areas of the Maltese islands.

Thus, the FKNK set-off on its Nursery pilot-project and established a small nursery at the Razzett tal-Bagħal (Mule’s Farmhouse - A renovated Knights of Malta 16^th century farmhouse administered by the FKNK).

In the spring of 2020, the Nursery saw growth from seed germination and propagation of an assemblage of Aleppo Pine, Mediterranean Oak, Bay Laurel, Mediterranean Buckthorn, Fig, Carob, Myrtle and Almond trees.

Humbled by the pilot-project’s success, by the second quarter of 2020, the FKNK reached an agreement with the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Planning, as a result of which the FKNK has now been entrusted with an area adjacent to the Razzett tal-Bagħal which is ideal to sustain the Nursery’s enlargement.

In December 2020 the FKNK started collecting thousands of seeds from indigenous trees and shrubs from Buskett (small wood) gardens and its surroundings, in which midst is situated the Razzett tal-Bagħal. This project aims to grow over 8,000 trees and shrubs in 2021.

The FKNK has already distributed, for free, hundreds of these native trees grown on-site at the Nursery to hunters and members of the general public to plant in rural and urban areas of their choice, whilst educating and raising awareness of the respective species.

The new EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, which includes a new restoration initiative, calls for more community-based actions led by citizens, businesses, or social partners to protect and restore Europe’s nature. This FKNK Project demonstrates yet again that hunters and trappers are active on the ground and will be essential players in implanting the strategy throughout Europe in the next 10 years.