Identifying Marine Important Bird Areas will help Declining Seabird Populations
07/27/2009
One of the key strategies that BirdLife International partners throughout the world use to protect birds is to identify and protect important bird areas, or IBAs.
Nature Canada and Bird Studies Canada, who represent BirdLife in this country, have identified 597 IBAs in Canada. Worldwide, more than 10,000 IBAs have been identified. However, while seabirds are declining faster than any other group of bird species, very few of the IBAs identified and protected are marine areas.
Fortunately, this is about to change. BirdLife’s Global Seabird Programme has taken a major step towards the identification of Marine Important Bird Areas by developing guidelines to track seabirds and analyse the data to identify Marine IBAs.
Hopefully, this work will lead to the establishment of a global network of Marine Protected Areas that will help support other conservation efforts focused on declining seabird populations.
Hopefully, this work will lead to the establishment of a global network of Marine Protected Areas that will help support other conservation efforts focused on declining seabird populations.
(Photo by Lex Van Groningen / Wandering Albatross)
