Good Morning Birders
I've been thinking about a message that was posted a few days ago, which I
have unfortunately deleted. The author related to the fact that birding in
the UK was "almost mainstream", very public, large scale, and quite
organised, as opposed to Oz birding being a niche activity pursued by only
few. In the UK and other European countries (Scandinavia, Holland) and also
the USA, birding/birdwatching has taken a huge flight :-) over the last
decade.
Wouldn't it be nice if the same situation could be achieved in Australia?
Imagine, you could buy Wingspan at the newsagency, there would be
birdwatching shows on commercial TV, newspapers would run bird related
stories, Birds Australia would have 10,000s members.
After all, with birding being a more commonly accepted and pursued activity,
the birds can only benefit. More public awareness, more money raised, more
people doing bird counts of various kinds, even more interest from pollies
(?!?) all leading to more & better research and conservation efforts.
The awareness and enthusiastic public uptake of birding in the above
mentioned countries has not always been so. Only in the late eighties/early
nineties things started to change and snowballed from then on. General
awareness of environmental issues started to increase. The Dutch association
for bird conservation & research was lucky enough to attract a publicly
known personality to its committee who started to push their case on TV a
fair bit. He started appearing in programs comparable to Better Homes &
Gardens and the like. At the same time, twitching became more popular and
the media started to become interested in all these "weirdos with
binoculars" travelling from far & wide to watch rarities. Subsequently to
these two processes, membership of associations for bird conservation &
research started to rise, prompting them to - with now increasing funds -
intensify public campaigns, advertising, and so on. Sponsorship was found
for TV ads and within a few years birding had become an "almost mainstream"
activity.
Could we learn something from these experiences? I think so. Birds Australia
has a unique opportunity to tap into a growing public awareness of
environmental issues. Just remember the outcry about landclearing; the
recent whaling debates; the "green thumbs" various landcare and natural
heritage trust schemes have created; etc etc.
I think BA have taken the first step and that was changing their name. They
now need to perhaps do a few case studies and apply overseas experiences to
the Australian situation, with the support and input from all of us. Only
then can birdwatching truly grow out of its current tiny niche.
Cheers
Peter Waanders
website: www.riverland.net.au/~peterw
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