We quite often mention Important Bird Areas (IBAs) on 10,000 Birds without explaining what they are. Perhaps we should…

IBAs are basically key sites for bird conservation. BirdLife International (the UK-based “global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources”) initiated the IBA concept in the 1980s, and now IBAs are active in nearly 170 countries, with over 7,500 sites identified. BirdLife Partners take responsibility for the IBA Programme nationally - eg the RSPB in the UK, Bird Studies Canada (BSC) and Nature Canada in Canada, and Audubon in the US (where California, Texas, and Florida have the most IBAs (with 64, 45, and 42 IBAs respectively).

The selection of Important Bird Areas (IBAs) has been a particularly effective way of identifying conservation priorities. To be recognised as an IBA the site has to meet internationally agreed and scientifically-defensible criteria, based on the occurrence of key bird species that are vulnerable to global extinction or whose populations are otherwise irreplaceable.

They must therefore do one (or more) of three things:

• Hold significant numbers of one or more globally threatened species
• Are one of a set of sites that together hold a suite of restricted-range species or biome-restricted species (that is birds found within a particular biome and/or habitat)
• Have congregations of significant numbers of birds: sites with a high concentration of eg seabirds, shorebirds, aquatic and migratory birds based on global population estimates

Furthermore an IBA must be amenable to conservation action and management.

Technically IBAs have no protection under international law such as World Heritage or the Ramsar Convention but many are contained within already protected areas like National Parks. Worryingly, though, many aren’t - Africa’s largest IBA, the Tibesti Massif IBA in Chad which covers 3.3 million hectares, has no protection at all. They are however increasingly recognised worldwide as the international currency for site protection, and the IBA designation is an important first step in raising awareness among the public, and among land managers, to the importance of each site and its value to bird conservation. Recognition of a site as an IBA does mean that conservation efforts can be focussed, resources used more efficiently, and governments left in no uncertainty which areas within their territories need the most urgent conservation action.

Data collected by researchers in the field demonstrates that IBAs are also excellent indicators of biodiversity richness and are therefore also important for a wide range of species - including ours: remaining semi-natural habitats at key sites such as lakes, rivers, forests, reefs, mires and grasslands can make a huge contribution to mediating the natural cycles of water, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and other substances through the environment, filtering, buffering, purifying, storing and replenishing the substances that make life possible. A healthy environment is good for both birds and people.