Announcement of 350-24-24 Bird Photo Challenge

From: Mark Anderson
To: sabirdclubforum@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 8:10 AM
Subject: [sabirdclubforum]
Urgent: Announcement of 350-24-24 Bird Photo Challenge

Dear colleagues

I’m extremely pleased to extend an open invitation to all bird photographers in South Africa to join me in the just-launched 350-24-24 Bird Photo Challenge. On 24 October volunteer bird photographers all over South Africa are going to photograph 350 species of birds within 24 hours and post the images on a website to promote birding, bird conservation and climate change awareness around the world.

The Challenge is a partnership between BirdLife South Africa, Birding Africa and PlusPlusMinus webdesign and will an innovative contribution by the South African birding community to the world’s biggest simultaneous environmental awareness action, 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action.On 24 October thousands of people in more than 140 countries will be doing a range of creative actions to raise awareness of one of the most critical issues of our time, climate change.

The President of the Maldives will be holding a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the danger of rising sea levels, climbers at the Mount Everest Base Camp will be raising banners about glacial melting, and crowds of creative people will be doing all sorts of things on Table Mountain.

The Day of Action has the support of prominent scientists like NASA’s James Hansen, the world’s most famous climate researcher, and our own Nobel Prize-winning Archbishop Desmond Tutu.Since we’re about birds and conservation, and 350.org’s Day of Action is a magnificent opportunity to ride a wave of global environmental concern, we’ve decided to use the opportunity to raise the profile of South Africa’s amazing avifauna.

The Challenge will be as inclusive as possible – we aim to include photos by all contributors in the online mosaic of bird pictures that will result from the Challenge. Photographers will be given full credit for their images, and will be encouraged to promote the conservation of threatened species and highlight great birding destinations in the picture captions. We’re encouraging members of other conservation organisations to join in, and are inviting other countries to set up their own 350-24-24 Bird Photo Challenges.October 24 is just around the corner, so don’t delay in visiting the 350-24-24 Challenge website at http://350.birdingafrica.com to find out more and register your participation!

I’d like to thank Birding Africa, PlusPlusMinus and BirdLife South Africa’s Nikki McCartney for helping get this together at such short notice, and Adam Welz at 350.org, who’s idea this was in the first place. By working together we, and the birds, win.I’m going to be out with my camera on 24 October. Are you?

Regards,
Mark

P.S. Please circulate this open invitation to your networks as widely as possible.