At 10-minute intervals after this blog appears so will the Guest Blogs of seven organisations that have taken up the Minox Challenge. They are published in the order in which they were received.
I am grateful to all seven organisations, and their Chief Executives (or deputies in the cases of Plantlife and MARINElife which don’t have CEOs right now), for their blogs that spell out why they each need your support.
Later in the week – probably on Friday – you will get the opportunity to vote for which organisation you think should get the proceeds from the auction of a classy pair of binoculars donated to this Blog by Minox.
I won’t be allowing comments on these seven Guest Blogs but you can always indicate, rather crudely, what you think of them by using the ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ buttons if you cannot hold back your voting urge for a few more days!
[registration_form]
What a difficult choice to have to make….
Do I vote for the RSPB? I am a member and I have in the past helped as a volunteer. I support the work they do, the raptor group work with the support of the local reserve wardens, and their investigations team do so much good work in many areas including raptor persecution.
The BTO? again I am a member, a volunteer bird ringer and a nest recorder.The BTO do some sterling work for what is relatively speaking a small organisation.
Both of these organisations are in an area that my main interests lie (avian), but I already support them financially and as a volunteer.
My thought is that I should support one of the other perhaps smaller organisations.
I wonder who would make best use of the small amount of cash that this auction will raise?
When part of Thorne Moors SSSI was wantonly damaged (see Mark guest blog 17 January 2013 https://markavery.info/2013/01/17/guest-blog-a-muzzled-watchdog-toothless-terrier-helen-kirk/), Buglife took an interest and helped.
Disappointingly there was deafening slence from those champions for the natural environment that I’d hoped would rally. This was a blatant act and evidence based backed by science but the deafening silence spoke volumes. I reflected the campaign history of our beleagured South Yorkshire/North Lincolnshire bogs. So, thank you Craig and the Buglife team.
OK Defra agencies (NE & the RPA) have still to be held to account for failure to act, failure to investigate and take up the opportunity to recover public funds.
Can I remind people of the next threat to NNRs and the biodiversity they support, see http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-rethink-national-nature-reserves-as-open-access
I would point out that we are not oppossed in principle to the idea of Open Access, where appropriate. The problem unfortunately, is yet again that NE are ‘judge and jury’. Many of these first tranche NNRs are Natura 2000 sites and legislation requires due process. It would also seem reasonable to conduct business in an open and transparent way and consult interest groups as well as the public? How many of you out there have heard of Nature Conservation Assessments? I’d liken them to a multi national corporation’s consultant saying industrial discharge into the North Sea would not impact upon marine life.
Check out if the NNR near you is destined to evolve into a country park ….