Newsletter / Blog
2011-06-16 BirdLife International - identifying marine IBAs.
BirdLife International has a
well-established and highly successful programme of defining Important
Bird Areas (IBAs). The aim of the IBA programme is to "identify and
protect a network of sites at a biogeographic scale, critical for the
long-term viability of naturally occurring bird populations, across the
range of those bird species for which a site-based approach is
appropriate. The network is considered the minimum essential to ensure
the survival of these species". The IBA programme has only recently been
extended into the marine environment, and thus the protection and
conservation value that the IBA programme has brought to terrestrial
birds, habitats and ecosystems has not yet been translated into similar
benefits for seabirds, marine habitats or coastal or pelagic ecosystems.
The seabird division of BirdLife South
Africa has started a marine IBA programme. We have identified a sites in
the region that are important breeding places for many of the regions
seabirds. However, these are all terrestrial, and there is a need to
extend our recognition of important areas for seabirds into the marine
environment as well. To this end BirdLife International is rolling out a
programme of work to identify marine IBAs (MIBAs).
The threats that seabirds face are somewhat analogous to those faced by
migratory waders and land birds, although migration routes, times and
stopovers en route tend to be very specific and vary very little within a
species, and there is much overlap between species. This makes it
easier to identify key sites for protection – something that our
terrestrial Important Bird Areas programme has done to great effect. But
seabirds are different, with threats that are unique amongst birds,
because those that occur at sea (away from breeding sites) receive very
little observer effort to record problems, and often no legislation to
deal with them. Until 10 years ago when remote tracking technology
became available, our understanding of seabird movements away from
breeding colonies was extremely limited.
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