With your support in bird conservation, we’ve identified nearly 600 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) across Canada’s diverse landscapes since 1996. Acting with regional conservation partners, we’ve built an exhaustive IBA database, finalized almost 100 site conservation plans, helped communities implement more than 150 local projects, and initiated a volunteer network of IBA Caretakers. Working in harmony with bird conservation efforts from local to international levels, Canada’s IBA Program has become a cornerstone in science-based, site-specific conservation for birds and biodiversity.

We work with all levels of government, including indigenous partners, to incorporate IBAs in land-use planning policies and engage corporations and private landowners to include IBAs in their decision-making. Over the past decade, Canada’s IBAs have received over $7 million in support from the federal and provincial governments, private industry and foundations, indigenous partners, nature conservation groups and individual stewards. With our partners, we have developed protocols to track bird populations, implemented on-the-ground conservation activities, and empowered local groups to watch over and protect IBAs.

The Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas Program is a global initiative led by BirdLife International to conserve birds and their habitats. In Canada, Nature Canada and Bird Studies Canada co-deliver the program. Together with our partners we are achieving science-based, site specific conservation for birds and biodiversity.

Canada’s IBA Program plays a critical role in national bird conservation efforts. BirdLife International began the IBA program in Europe in the 1980s. Since that time, BirdLife partners in more than 178 countries and territories have joined to build the global IBA network.

What makes an area an IBA? Find the criteria here.