IBAs or Important Bird Areas are areas that are globally recognized as important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Its highly difficult to analyze areas in need of conservation in such a large country. Australia has a total of 803 bird species and 312 of those are endemic. With such a high number of endemic birds, it’s essential that important areas be conserved. Birds Australia published their report of Australia’s Important Bird Areas and this report will help in conservation planning. A total of 314 IBAs are recognized in the report. Now that these areas are outlined, it will be easier (not easy) to conserve the important areas.
There are many birds under threat that call Australia home. Four species are critically endangered, with eighteen endangered, and twenty-five vulnerable. Even common birds are not safe from population declines. According to the 2008 State of Australia’s Birds Report, about two-thirds of common bird’s are showing long-term population declines.
“Australia and its Territories are ranked fourteenth in the world for the number of Globally Threatened and restricted-range bird species.”
The 314 sites name Important Bird Areas were studied over four years, from 2005 to 2009. The sites total up to nearly 44 million hectares (about 170,000 square miles). These areas are in all Australian States and Territories, but nearly half do not have prior protection. The government hopes to protect at least 10% of all bioregions, along with habitats with threatened species. Many regions are unprotected or underprotected. There are also issues on what to protect over others. Some regions need to be protected over large areas and others do not need to be so large. It depends on the species in question. The protected areas, it seems, need to be taken on a case by case basis.
Identifying which areas need to be protected is the first step into conserving them. All of the IBAs fall under different types of land ownership. This gives a great opportunity for all types of land owners, whether it be government or people, to work together to save endangered bird species.
Pictured: mangrove honeycreeper
