I think there's a decent amount of latent interest in the environment in general and birds in particular since they are probably the most visible. The hard part

I think there's a decent amount of latent interest in the environment in general and birds in particular since they are probably the most visible. The hard part is getting from somewhat interested to quite interested - that would make a big difference in environment issues - but that's hard to do unless you find out about local birds clubs, etc. which are really targeted at the serious/obsessed birder. Cornell do a reasonable job of engaging people's interest and the data available on eBird should help. eBird adoption is growing here in Portugal - the main advantage is the moderation which is useful in keeping out the, shall we say, less reliable observations. As a result we see a decline in the use of other databases as people move to eBird. I use the eBird API for www.birdinglisboa.com which provides a news service for birders in the Lisbon area.</shameless plug>