At 10 a.m. on a hot Tuesday morning, student Roderik Bojanowski should have been sitting in an English class in Oldenburg, Germany.

Instead, he found himself armed with a hoe, attempting to lever an invasive Agave plant out of the ground at Rdum tal-Madonna (L-Aħrax tal-Mellieħa) without getting spiked.

Meanwhile, two of his classmates were lying in wait for the first tourists to the site so that they could persuade them to answer a questionnaire on their experience in the protected area and find out how visitors felt that the area could be improved. Other students were out and about, either at the Birdlife office at Ta' Xbiex or at the organic farm at Gaia.

The reason why these European students were not in class, but outdoors labouring for nature conservation, can be explained through a unique collaboration between the Herbartgymnasium Grammar School in the north of Germany and Birdlife Malta.

Teacher and co-ordinator Veronika Riesebieter explains: "We wanted to do something different with our students during their work experience week, rather than just sending them to the bank, the doctors' surgery or the supermarket. Our students are all learning English and in fact some of their classes, such as history, are held in English. We wanted the students to learn about environmental protection. Malta was the perfect place as there are some really innovative conservation projects going on here. The feedback from the students has been great."

There was certainly no chance of the students getting bored. Work at Rdum tal-Madonna included picking up the endless stream of rubbish left by some of the campers. The rubbish attracts rats, which then go down the cliffs and eat the eggs or chicks of the Yelkouan Shearwaters that breed there. The critical breeding period starts this month, so this work is particularly important, especially since Malta has around 10 per cent of the world's population of Yelkouan Shearwaters.

At the Foresta 2000 site, students continued the tree-planting work undertaken by ranger Ray Vella as well as fixing tree guards and weeding. At the Birdlife office, students got a taste of life at the sharp end of conservation, experiencing the busy office and helping with administration work. They were involved in all aspects of work from inputting bird sightings data, to preparing documents for a management meeting.

The Gaia Foundation also helped out, offering placements to students and training them in every aspect of running the organic farm. Trying Gaia's organic olive oil was a big hit, removing snails from the plants by hand was an even bigger challenge!

Student Katarina Knaus summed up the experience: "I enjoyed my work experience week because I felt very useful and got an inside view into conservation work in Malta. The best part was being outside at Rdum tal-Madonna and the other locations. I really saw the problems on the protected sites and working there helped me to understand what the solutions were as well."

The school hopes to turn this opportunity into a regular initiative is already planning a return. The group left with a positive image of Malta - clearing the sites of weeds and rubbish as well as finding out what visitors value in natural sites in Malta will help to ensure that tourists coming after them will also take that positive image home with them.

To find out more about the projects, visit www.lifeshearwaterproject.org.mt and www.birdlifemalta.org.

Ms Raine is EU LIFE project manager.