What YOU Can Do for Wildlife: Part 3

Froglife is sharing a list of our 12 favourite things you can do to help amphibians and reptiles in 2012. There is a huge range of ways people can get involved in wildlife conservation, and they don’t all involve getting wet and muddy! Here is our third tip.

Idea Number 3. Online Action

There are all sorts of things you can do from your desktop to help wildilfe!

There are a number of petitions that come up at various times that aim to help influence decisions affecting wildlife. Petition site 38 Degrees is a handy place to look.  At the moment a number of wildlife organisations have ongoing petitions, including:
• Save the BBC Wildlife Fund
• Campaigns from the Woodland Trust
• A petition for greater protection in the planning system from the RSPB
• Global petitions and calls to action from the US based Save the Frogs

The Power of Social Networks
Froglife has a page on both Facebook and Twitter, and numbers of supporters are growing as we engage more people in our cause. You can find Froglife on Facebook here and on Twitter here.
Froglife trustee Inez Smith has been getting to grips with sharing frog-friendly thoughts through social media. “I signed up to Twitter recently,” says Inez. “I don’t have many followers but I follow quite a few people so have been sending them odd little tweets with Froglife mentioned. This has lead to some re-tweets, which means their followers then see the information. I guess it’s about using our own networks to spread the conservation message.”
Every positive word about amphibians and reptiles can help to tackle misperceptions and raise awareness, and it’s also a great way to share information about campaigns, petitions and calls to action.
Social media can also link into citizen science projects as a way of recording animal sightings, as mentioned here.

Free money!
There’s nothing better than stuff for nothing and this month, Froglife will be in line for some no-cost dosh from the ethical pet insurance company Animal Friends. But we need your help.
Every month, Animal Friends runs a “charity of the month” competition on its Facebook page Feel Good Park. Members of the public can then chose the charity they think most deserving and vote for it. The charity with the most votes gets a donation of £5,000, whilst the charity that comes second will receive £2,000. Even third and fourth place get £1,500. Froglife have been offered the chance to be a featured charity and as long as we get at least 100 votes we will be guaranteed some money.
All you have to do is visit their Facebook page, click on “vote for a charity” down the left hand side and follow the instructions. Easy!  You can find their Facebook page here.

Shop and Raise Funds

You can also help raise funds for Froglife through shopping! By signing up for Give as You Live and downloading their handy app, you stores you shop with online will make donations to us. If we can sign up 25 shoppers before the end of March, Give as You Live will also donate an extra £5 per shopper! You can find out more and sign up here.

• How did you get on with this action? We’d love to know any feedback, and to share your tips and ideas with others including any really important petitions or online actions that you’ve come across. Please email or comment on our Facebook page