Some months ago Mike, Corey, and I had a discussion about which direction we wanted to develop the blog. More photos, more posts, more interaction? Sure, all of those, but we wanted to do something that also really expressed our passion for birds and for the world we live in. What we really wanted to do, we decided, was to strengthen our commitment to conservation. Our Kinangop Grasslands/Sharpe’s Longclaw campaign (more of which next week, as I’m visiting Nairobi this Friday) had already moved us in a very interesting direction, and our ‘Parrot Month’ series further reached out to researchers and conservationists in a very positive way. What we really needed though, we thought, was to become a part of a larger whole that though perhaps already up and running would still be something we could make a positive, useful contribution to, a campaign or a project that our readers might also be proud to be a part of…

Well, we’ve found something that exactly fits the bill, and as observant visitors to 10,000 Birds might have noted we have a new logo in our sidebar: one that proclaims that we are now a Birdlife International Species Champion.

BirdLife International, based here in the UK, is a “global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources.” BirdLife partners operate in over one hundred countries and territories worldwide, and many people reading this may well be a member of one without even realising it. The UK partner, for example, is the RSPB. The US partner is Audubon. Canada’s is jointly Bird Studies Canada and Nature Canada. Australia’s is Birds Australia. Household names wherever you happen to live.

We’ve promoted BirdLife through links to their website many times, and I’ve personally been involved with them (somewhat distantly) for many years and been up to their HQ a couple of times in my capacity as a co-founder of Birds Korea. They have an international reputation for meticulous research and for positive action on the ground. Would there be, we wondered, a BirdLife campaign we could usefully get involved with?

The answer came when we reviewed the excellent “Rare Birds Yearbook 2009″. Edited by Erik Hirschfeld, the book described the 190 most Critically Endangered bird species on the planet - and Erik was giving a proportion of all the profits back to BirdLife through his support of their innovative “Preventing Extinctions Programme” (PEP) which was set up specifically to find ways to drag each and every one of those species away from the abyss that is extinction.

Along with such conservation giants as Sir David Attenborough and the British Birdwatching Fair, conservation minded businesses like Swarovski Optik (who also sponsor 10,000 Birds of course), In Focus, and WildSounds, and a small number of unsung individuals like Dr. Urs-Peter Stäuble, Ed Keeble (a great supporter of Birds Korea), and Peter Smith, Erik had also signed up to become a Species Champion through the PEP.

Species Champions, as described on the BirdLife website are “a growing community of Companies, Institutions and Individuals who share our concerns and demonstrate their commitment to protecting the planet’s natural heritage by funding the work undertaken by our Species Guardians”. Now that sounded like something worth belonging to. Could 10,000 Birds become a Species Champion and actively help in the conservation of some of the world’s rarest birds, we wondered?

As I lived in the UK and had spoken to BirdLife before it was decided that I’d make the enquiries and find out. I found myself emailing with Jim Lawrence, the extremely enthusiastic Programme Manager. Joining the programme and being able to display the coveted Species Champion logo wasn’t a cheap option and required a three-year commitment, Jim said, but we’d be very welcome to come up to BirdLife and discuss our options if we’d like to…

In mid-January I went back to BirdLife HQ and spent a fascinating few hours with Jim and several of the BirdLife staff. Jim went over the PEP in great detail and explained exactly what our membership would mean to both BirdLife and to 10,000 Birds. I’d driven up almost certain I was ready to put my credit card on the table, by the time we’d finished lunch I was ready to pledge my house and children (okay, not really, but I was totally convinced).

That day 10,000 Birds joined the Preventing Extinctions Programme as a Species Champion, the first (and so far only) blog in the world to do so which is something we’re quite proud of.

I wrote earlier that we wanted 10,000 Birds to become a part of something that “our readers might also be proud to be a part of…”. Mike, Corey, and I are sure that the PEP is that something, but we also understand that not everyone has the capacity to involve as deeply as we plan to.

The PEP is really like an open-ended fund-raising programme though, and what we’re hoping is that anyone who wants to support it might consider doing so through us via a Chip In widget which we’ll be setting up in a week or so.

We don’t touch any of the donations ourselves of course, and while we don’t have a say in which species or which overseas project gets supported what we will do is set up a page so that every single donor gets recognised, credited and linked to directly from 10,000 Birds. That way we become part of the Preventing Extinctions Programme together, and we all have a chance to be Species Champions and demonstrate our joint commitment “to protecting the planet’s natural heritage…”

We’re in the process of putting together much more information about the Preventing Extinction Programme and the species it supports, and we’ll soon be posting an interview with Jim Lawrence himself so that he can say in his own words what the PEP means to him and how he thinks 10,000 Birds and other blogs can become more involved. We’re also thinking about how we can make joining us and our conservation efforts more rewarding to you as an individual or blogger…

In the meantime though we’d really like to know if this sounds interesting to you, and whether the Preventing Extinctions Programme might be something you could see yourself supporting. Do you have any questions you’d like to ask us about it? Please leave any comments/questions etc in the boxes below, as we’d really like to know what you think…