As any regular reader will know, I'm a great fan of hands-on conservation. I don't believe for a second that conservation is something that should be left to the "big boys" - in fact after dealing throughout the Saemangeum Campaign with a bunch of the "big boys" who for reasons best known to them steadfastly refused to put their heads over the parapet and support us I'm very happy to promote any conservation group that a) I believe in, b) thinks a mention on this blog may help them, and c) aren't afraid to tell the truth even if it might lose them a few dinners with local politicians.

One such group is the Proact Campaigns Network (Proact) run by the unfunded and tireless David Conlin, who is now based in the Czech Republic. David has somehow managed to recruit almost a thousand members in 70 States worldwide under the Proact banner.

So that's the "who". What does Proact stand for? To quote from the Proact website:

• Proact is a non-political, independent and voluntary organisation committed to coordinating and monitoring support for selected environmental campaigns in Europe and its periphery; and ultimately, through our national and regional coordinators, worldwide. Our prime, but not exclusive concern, is the conservation of birds and their habitats.

Proact mainly works by sending out email alerts and by adding mass signatures to petitions that the network has been asked to sign. In effect, YOU join Proact, David adds your "signature" to his list of members, and the next campaign Proact supports your name is added along with everyone else's to the petition (David points out, incidentally, that any member who doesn't want to be associated with a particular campaign only has to email him for his/her signature to be removed.)

To show my support I will be highlighting Proact's alerts on this page from now on and hopefully get a few additional signatures that the Proact campaigns might otherwise not get...

Why do I support David and his work? Proact's methodology is a simple and potentially very effective method of campaigning, and as David says, "joining costs nothing - doing nothing costs birds".