If you spend time thinking about family, you unleash a Pandora’s box of emotions: blood is thicker than water, sibling rivalry, remember to celebrate the success of others, don’t live your life through your children - nurture them and let them go etc. 

The RSPB is part of a wider family – it’s called the Birdlife International partnership.  At a RSPB Council meeting yesterday, BirdLife’s Chief Executive, Marco Lambertini, gave a powerful and inspirational overview of the work of our family.

This is a large family - made up of 10 million voices in 120 countries.  It is a family that spends a lot of money - $502 million annually on nature conservation.  But it is a family on a mission – to prevent the extinction of species.  The mission is challenging – one in eight of all bird species are currently categorised as ‘threatened’.

But, this is a family that knows what it needs to do.  It has identified 11,000 sites (called Important Bird Areas) in 218 countries which need protecting.

We, the RSPB, are just one member of that family, but we have our own part to play: to help save nature in our own (UK) back yard and support other members of our family to achieve our goals.  That’s why we actively support a large number of partners in countries from India to Indonesia and Sierra Leone to the Seychelles. 

When the family has a problem, we close ranks and try to help out.  That is what it means to be part of a family.  We help each other out when we need it and together we are stronger.

I just must remember to tell the kids that the next time they are squabbling over a board game...