In Sweden, a private initiative organised by famous bird artist Lars Jonsson and Alexander Hellquist is aiming to collect money to fund work (through the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Recovery Team) for protecting Spoon-billed Sandpipers in Myanmar and Bangladesh from hunting this winter. We are adamant that all donated money will be used in the field, and not drained by administrative processes. It will be channelled through The Spoon-billed Sandpiper Recovery Team and collected funds will be sent to them in December. By contributing a minimum of SEK100 (which is c. USD15, Euro 11) BEFORE 15th December 2010, donors get the possibility to win an original Lars Jonsson sketch of a Spoon-billed Sandpiper worth c. USD2200, and one in every 150 tickets (each ticket worth SEK100) will win.

Non-Swedish residents wishing to donate and have the chance of winning one of these unique Lars Jonsson sketches, can pay via my Paypal account, with payment to d@hirschfeld.se . This account is only used for this initiative and not for any of my personal finances. Please add 3,9% to the sum to cover Paypal’s costs; the additional USD 0.30/transaction and any costs for transferring money to Lars’s account will be covered by myself. Please consult the exchange rate in your Paypal account before making a payment. If you prefer making a (costly) bank transfer instead, please contact me at editor@theworldsrarest.com for details.

Your support for saving this most charismatic and severely endangered wader is much appreciated and well needed!

Kind regards,

Erik Hirschfeld, Malmö, Sweden