Important Bird Areas in Antarctica
ERA has been working with Birdlife International and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to define a list of Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in the Antarctic Peninsula / South Shetland Islands / South Orkney Islands region. The work evaluated data on bird populations in the region against criteria defined by BirdLife to derive a list of 101 sites. Site accounts have been prepared describing these IBAs, which are available in Important Bird Areas in Antarctica - Antarctic Peninsula / South Shetland Islands / South Orkney Islands: Final report (pdf 8.8 MB).
Brown skua (Catharacta antarctica, subsp. lonnbergi). Photo: © Colin Harris.
This project was initiated by BirdLife International and the Bird Biology Sub-committee of Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) to identify sites within the Antarctic region that meet BirdLife criteria for internationally Important Bird Areas. In 2002, experts from SCAR and BirdLife International identified an initial list of IBAs meeting the criteria. Although many IBAs were included in this list, new species data has since become available and this affected the sites qualifying for IBA status. The project was re-initiated by BirdLife International with a view to completing the list of IBAs in the Antarctic, and this report addresses the Peninsula region as a first step.
IBA sites are being identified across each major geographic region of the world and more information on current networks of IBAs can be found at Birdlife International.
