Instead of making another unattainable New Year resolution that’s doomed to fail, such as to ‘drink less’, ‘lose those few extra pounds’ or ‘get fit’, why don’t you pledge to do something for your local biodiversity this year? It'll be more fun and you're more likely to succeed.

Biodiversity is life – pass it on is a social media campaign asking everyone to pledge to do one small thing for biodiversity during 2010, the International Year for Biodiversity. With your help and your pledges, we can all make a difference together.

There are hundreds of ways you can appreciate and help conserve biodiversity from learning about your local wildlife or encouraging wildlife into your garden, to taking part in a national wildlife project or giving a donation to a conservation charity. Some of the IYB-UK partners have already made their pledges and they have come up with a whole range of different pledge ideas, but you don’t have to stick to these suggestions, you can do anything you like as long it helps biodiversity in some way.

Once you’ve decided on your pledge for 2010, on 1 January, or as soon as you can after that date, let all your friends know what you’re doing and encourage them to pledge to do something too. Use Twitter, email, Facebook or blog to pass your pledge on to everyone you know and, hopefully, inspire them to do the same. On Twitter you could begin you tweet by saying: ‘I’m supporting biodiversity by (type your pledge in here and end your tweet with the following hashtag and web address) #iyb http://www.biodiversityislife.net/?q=do-one-thing .'

Make 2010 the year you do your bit for biodiversity and keep up your New Year’s resolution all through the year.