The IBA
Programme of BirdLife International.
·
The function of the Important Bird Area (IBA) Programme is to
identify, protect and manage a network of sites that are important for the
long-term viability of naturally occurring bird populations, across the geographical
range of those bird species for which a site-based approach is appropriate.
·
The continued ecological integrity of these sites will be
decisive in maintaining and conserving such birds. Legal protection, management and monitoring
of these crucial sites will all be important targets for action, and many (but
not all) bird species may be effectively conserved by these means. Patterns of bird distribution are such that,
in most cases, it is possible to select sites that support many species.
·
The IBA Programme is global in scale, and it is anticipated
that up to 20,000 IBAs will be identified world-wide, using standard,
internationally-recognised criteria for selection.
·
The sites are identified on the basis of the bird numbers and
species’ complements that they hold, and are selected such that, taken
together, they form a network throughout the species biogeographic
distributions.
·
This network may be considered as a minimum essential to
ensure the survival of these species across their ranges, should there occur a
net loss of remaining habitat elsewhere through human, or other,
modification. Therefore, the
consequences of loss of any one of these sites may be disproportionately large.
·
The programme aims to guide the implementation of national
conservation strategies, through the promotion and development of national
protected-area programmes. It is also
intended to assist the conservation activities of international organisations,
and to promote the implementation of global agreements and regional measures.
Relationship between
Important Bird Areas and Endemic Bird Areas.
Endemic Bird Areas (EBAs) were
intended to identify global-scale priorities for conservation, and have been
highly effective at directing conservation resources at a global scale (Brooks et al 2006). An EBA is an area where two or more
restricted-range bird species overlap, and where at least one of the species is
restricted to the area. A
restricted-range terrestrial bird species is defined as a species whose
historical breeding range is 50,000km2 or less (Stattersfield
et al 1998). This definition incorporates approximately
27% of all bird species (75% of which are threatened) Langhammer
et al 2007). 218 EBAs have been identified globally. However, EBAs do not allow for the identification
of site-scale conservation
targets, furthermore some sites that are globally important for bird
conservation will inevitably fall outside these broad priority regions. IBAs help to identify important sites, not
just within broad regions of global priority, but in all countries
worldwide. IBAs can therefore provide
the fundamental basis of national and regional-scale site conservation
programmes.
Relationship between
Important Bird Areas and Key Biodiversity Areas.
The criteria used to identify IBAs are
almost identical to those used to identify KBAs. As such IBAs are the avian subset of KBAs.
As IBA coverage tends to be more comprehensive than many other groups
of species IBAs are often used as one of the first sets of data.
Clearly, while all IBAs can be
considered to be KBAs – it does not follow that all KBAs are necessarily IBA.
Some KBAs will be defined based on Critically Endangered plant, bat,
invertebrate or coral reef communities.