IMPORTANT BIRD AREA COVERAGE BY COUNTRYdatazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/IBAs/AfricaCntryPD... · 2016-10-31 · an area smaller than this overall mean, which is skewed by a relatively

37

Important Bird Areas in Africa and associated islands – Overview and recommendations

■■■■■ OVERVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS

IMPORTANT BIRD AREA COVERAGE BY COUNTRY

A total of 1,228 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) are distributed among58 countries or territories in Africa and its associated islands,covering just over 2 million km², equivalent to 7% of the continent’sland area (Figure 1, Table 1).

The effective protection and management of this network ofglobally important sites is a realistic long-term goal that wouldmake a significant contribution to conserving many bird species

and populations in Africa, as well as many other elements ofbiodiversity at the ecosystem, taxon and genome level.

The number of IBAs identified per country varies from oneIBA on Bouvetøya in the Southern Ocean to 101 IBAs in SouthAfrica. The total area covered by IBAs nationally ranges from50 km² on Bouvetøya to more than 180,000 km² in Sudan (thelargest country in Africa). An ‘average’ country in Africa, with aland area of about 500,000 km², has about 20 IBAs covering about35,000 km².

Spec

ies

of g

loba

lco

nser

vatio

n co

ncer

n

Asse

mbl

age

ofre

stric

ted-

rang

e sp

ecie

s

Asse

mbl

age

ofbi

ome-

restr

icte

d sp

ecie

s

Cong

rega

tion

ofw

ater

bird

s

Cong

rega

tion

ofse

abird

s/lan

dbird

s

≥20,

000

wat

erbi

rds

or ≥

10,0

00 p

airs

of se

abird

Mig

ratio

n bo

ttlen

eck

Table 1. The total number and total area of Important Bird Areas by country, and the total number of IBAs fulfilling each criterion.

Number of sites meeting criteria (see also Figures 6 and 7)

ISO Number Area ofCountry code of IBAs IBAs (km²) (A1) (A2) (A3) (A4i) (A4ii) (A4iii) (A4iv)Algeria DZ 31 130,934 15 2 8 17 — 10 —Angola AO 23 73,850 14 9 22 — — — —Benin BJ 6 14,901 1 — 5 2 — — —Botswana BW 12 134,196 7 — 8 7 4 3 —Bouvetøya (Norway) BV 1 50 — — — — 1 1 —Burkina Faso BF 10 16,279 — — 9 2 1 4 —Burundi BI 5 1,018 4 3 4 1 — — —Cameroon CM 33 42,056 28 23 31 4 — 2 —Cape Verde CV 12 110 7 9 — — 5 2 —Central African Republic CF 8 73,622 1 1 8 — — — —Chad TD 8 146,490 3 — 7 3 — 2 —Comoros KM 4 345 4 4 — — 1 — —Congo CG 6 30,060 3 1 6 — 1 — —Congo, Democratic Republic of CD 19 130,489 15 11 19 1 1 — —Côte d’Ivoire CI 14 23,553 13 13 13 — — — —Djibouti DJ 7 1,112 4 — 5 3 — — 1Egypt EG 34 34,719 21 — 9 17 3 8 5Equatorial Guinea GQ 5 3,770 5 5 2 1 — — —Eritrea ER 14 4,690 4 2 14 2 — — —Ethiopia ET 69 47,757 53 17 46 17 — 13 —French Southern Territories TF 17 2,468 16 9 — 6 16 15 —Gabon GA 7 23,875 7 6 7 3 — 1 —The Gambia GM 13 586 — — 4 9 — 4 —Ghana GH 36 11,495 24 24 31 6 — 4 —Guinea GN 18 7,079 9 5 12 5 1 4 —Guinea-Bissau GW 8 8,735 5 — 6 4 — 4 —Kenya KE 60 54,330 47 29 30 13 1 8 —Lesotho LS 6 2,168 6 6 6 — 4 — —Liberia LR 9 5,806 8 8 9 1 — — —Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Socialist People’s LY 8 2,865 1 — 6 3 — — —Madagascar MG 84 52,797 72 75 84 20 — — —Malawi MW 22 16,451 15 13 21 1 — 1 —Mali ML 17 28,692 7 2 8 10 — 9 —Mauritania MR 24 17,906 15 — 13 13 — 14 —Mauritius MU 16 445 14 10 — 2 1 4 —Mayotte (France) YT 5 70 5 5 — — — — —Morocco MA 44 12,703 24 — 16 31 1 4 3Mozambique MZ 15 16,190 12 9 14 2 — 1 —Namibia NA 19 108,396 17 5 10 15 3 9 —Niger NE 15 83,431 3 — 5 8 — 4 —Nigeria NG 27 31,119 12 7 27 2 2 1 —Réunion (France) RE 12 256 9 8 — 3 9 3 —Rwanda RW 7 2,538 7 5 7 — — — —

... continued on next page

38


Area of individual IBAs

Undefined—64 IBAs

< 100 km²—442 IBAs

100–999 km²—426 IBAs

>1,000 km²—296 IBAs

There are 1,228 IBAs of globalimportance, covering 2,079,306 km²,equivalent to 7% of the land area ofthe region.

Spec

ies

of g

loba

lco

nser

vatio

n co

ncer

n

Asse

mbl

age

ofre

stric

ted-

rang

e sp

ecie

s

Asse

mbl

age

ofbi

ome-

restr

icte

d sp

ecie

s

Cong

rega

tion

ofw

ater

bird

s

Cong

rega

tion

ofse

abird

s/lan

dbird

s

≥20,

000

wat

erbi

rds

or ≥

10,0

00 p

airs

of se

abird

Mig

ratio

n bo

ttlen

eck

Figure 1. The location of Important Bird Areas in Africa and associated islands.

Table 1 ... continued. The total number and total area of Important Bird Areas by country, and the total number of IBAs fulfilling eachcriterion.

Number of sites meeting criteria (see also Figures 6 and 7)

ISO Number Area ofCountry code of IBAs IBAs (km²) (A1) (A2) (A3) (A4i) (A4ii) (A4iii) (A4iv)St Helena and Dependencies SH 8 369 8 6 — 8 8 6 —São Tomé and Príncipe ST 5 250 4 4 — 1 1 1 —Senegal SN 17 25,799 7 — 6 12 3 4 —Seychelles SC 20 760 12 12 — 12 6 10 —Sierra Leone SL 10 5,789 7 6 8 2 — 2 —Somalia SO 24 47,689 15 12 21 6 — 5 —South Africa ZA 101 101,154 89 47 56 45 25 21 —Sudan SD 22 181,082 8 — 19 6 — 4 —Swaziland SZ 3 600 2 2 3 — — — —Tanzania TZ 77 167,742 55 39 49 38 2 14 —Togo TG 4 5,085 2 — 4 — — — —Tunisia TN 46 12,529 20 — 16 32 2 11 1Uganda UG 30 13,598 25 12 27 8 — 4 —Zambia ZM 31 86,413 22 5 29 9 4 2 —Zimbabwe ZW 20 30,047 11 10 16 3 2 1 —Totals 1,228 2,079,306 824 483 786 416 108 220 10

39


Figure 4. The proportion ofthe national land areacovered by Important BirdAreas in each country inAfrica.

A high proportion of the IBAs in Ethiopia andEritrea have undefined areas (c.42% and 71% ofthe national inventories, respectively), andtherefore each of these sites has been awardedan hypothetical area (the average area of thesites of known area in the country), in order toobtain a better estimate of the true percentage ofnational area covered by IBAs.

Figure 2. The countries in Africa with more than 25 ImportantBird Areas.

Fourteen of the 58 countries (c.25%) have more than 25 IBAs(Figure 2) and 14 countries have more than 50,000 km² of theirterritory covered by IBAs (Figure 3), although only a minority ofcountries feature in both sets of countries, notably South Africa,Tanzania and Madagascar. Particularly high numbers of IBAs havebeen identified, relative to the size of the country, in these threenations, as well as in Ethiopia and Kenya. Very large countrieswith relatively few IBAs include the Democratic Republic of Congoand Sudan (Figure 1), although such IBAs can be very large, as inChad (eight IBAs covering more than 140,000 km²) and Botswana(12 IBAs covering 134,196 km²).

The proportion of national land area covered by IBAs is shownin Figure 4. Over the majority of the continent, IBAs cover between5% and 10% of the national land area, but the overall average isskewed higher, at 13%, by the small-island states, which tend tohave a much higher proportion of their land area identified asIBAs (average c.38%) than do countries on the African mainland(average c.8%). On the mainland, two countries have a particularly

The percentage at the end of each bar indicates the proportion of the country’s area that iscovered by IBAs. (For Ethiopia, see note in Figure 4.)

Figure 3. The countries in Africa where the total extent ofImportant Bird Areas exceeds 50,000 km².

The figure at the end of each bar indicates the mean size (in km²) of IBAs in that country.The individual areas of 64 sites (c.5% of all African IBAs) are undefined; almost half of these IBAs are inEthiopia, which country would almost certainly feature in this Figure if all its IBA areas were defined.

high percentage of their national land area covered by IBAs:Botswana (23%) and Tanzania (18%). In these countries, manyof the IBAs are existing protected areas, reflecting a highcommitment to natural-resource conservation by the governmentsconcerned.

Grouping all 1,228 IBAs together, irrespective of country, themost frequent size class (totalling well over 400 IBAs) is 100–999 km² (Figure 5) and the median IBA size is 200 km²—yet themean IBA size is 1,700 km². In fact, more than 75% of IBAs havean area smaller than this overall mean, which is skewed by arelatively small number of extremely large sites, such as in Chad(which has the largest mean IBA size by country, at more than18,000 km²), Botswana (mean IBA size more than 12,000 km²) andthe Central African Republic (mean IBA size more than10,000 km²). The lower mean IBA sizes by country are found insmall-island states, with the lowest of all in Cape Verde (9 km²).

A small but significant number of IBAs in this inventory aretransboundary sites, spanning the borders of two or more

0 40,000 80,000 120,000 160,000National IBA area (km²)

Tanzania

Central African Rep.

Chad

Botswana

Algeria

DR Congo

Namibia

South Africa

Zambia

Angola

Niger

Madagascar

Kenya

Sudan

921

629

10,517

3,211

5,562

2,788

1,002

5,705

6,868

5,456

11,183

18,311

2,178

8,623South Africa

Madagascar

Tanzania

Ethiopia

Kenya

Morocco

Tunisia

Ghana

Egypt

Cameroon

Zambia

Algeria

Uganda

Nigeria

0 20 40 60 80 100Number of IBAs

3%

6%

5%

11%

9%

3%

5%

8%

2%

9%

18%

9%

8%

Across all countries, IBAsrange in size from 0.001 km²to 80,000 km², and theirmean size is 1,700 km².

31

46

27

8

1724

46

178

18

109

14

36 4 6 33

7

10

15

5

8

8

619

30

22

69

60

77

75

14

24

2331

19 1220

22

101

6 3

15

84

34

7

12

8

1

17

16

12

204

5

Percentage of countryarea covered by IBAs

< 5.0%

10.0–14.9%

>15.0%

5.0–9.9%

40


countries—for example, the Nimba massif, an area rich in endemicspecies, comprises three contiguous IBAs lying in Liberia (LR004),Guinea (GN017) and Côte d’Ivoire (CI003), covering 378 km² intotal (half of which is unprotected and under great threat fromagriculture and mining). International collaboration for theprotection and management of these sites, and the biodiversity thatthey jointly support, is particularly important.

Has a complete set of sites been found? Undoubtedly there arestill many countries in Africa where not all globally significant IBAshave been identified, and where ongoing field studies will identifyfurther sites in the future and upgrade the completeness of the IBAnetwork—for example in Libya, Mozambique and Mali, where IBAcoverage of national area is less than 5% and the total number ofIBAs is also relatively low compared to countries of similar sizeand biodiversity (Figures 1 and 4).

In addition, the range and population size of some key speciesare still not well known—for example, several globally threatenedspecies in the rainforests of the Congo basin, such as Congo PeafowlAfropavo congensis—and therefore further sites are likely to beidentified as IBAs for these species, as knowledge improves.

IBA criteria may also be further elaborated and applied at regionaland sub-regional scales in Africa, leading to the identification offurther IBAs at these levels—as has already occurred in six countriesof the southern African sub-region, where 23 IBAs of sub-regionalimportance were identified in addition to the 161 IBAs of globalimportance (see Box 4 in ‘Introduction’ chapter).

THE BIRD SPECIES FOR WHICH IBAs AREIMPORTANT

Through the rigorous application of quantitative ornithologicalcriteria, it is assured that the network of 1,228 identified sites is ofglobal importance. The reasons for the importance of individualIBAs, as indicated by the type(s) of criteria that each site fulfils,are shown in Figure 6 and Table 1. The criteria most commonly

met are those for species of global conservation concern (categoryA1) and biome-restricted species assemblages (category A3), withapproximately two-thirds of the 1,228 IBAs qualifying for each.Significant assemblages of restricted-range species (category A2)are present at about 40% of IBAs, while a similar proportion of thesites qualify for one or more congregatory species (category A4).

A site may be important for many different species and maythus qualify under more than one category (Figure 7). Some387 IBAs (32% of the total) qualify under one category only (seealso Figure 6), while 50 sites (4%) qualify under all four categories(these latter sites are mainly in Madagascar, South Africa andTanzania).

Sites are often important for a number of species, each of whichqualifies under the same category. For example, several species ofwaterbird may congregate at a wetland site in a given season, eachin numbers that exceed the A4i population threshold—or severalglobally threatened species may have key populations at a lowlandforest site, thus repeatedly meeting the A1 criterion.

For many key species, IBAs represent the minimum network ofsites needed for their conservation, at the full potential of theirrange, distribution and population size. Figure 8 shows, except forits breeding range in parts of Asia, such a minimum network forLesser Kestrel Falco naumanni, a globally threatened species thatis a trans-equatorial migrant, undertaking globe-spanningmovements in excess of 10,000 km each year across many tens ofcountries. Such supportive networks of sites for intercontinentalmigrant species are a core value of IBAs.

■■■■■ Species of global conservation concernA total of 67% of IBAs (824 sites) are important because theysupport significant numbers of one or more species of globalconservation concern (see Appendix 3 for a full list of such species).At least one IBA has been selected on the basis of the A1 criterionin 55 of the 58 countries or territories (Table 1). Countries withmore than 50 IBAs identified on this basis are South Africa(89 sites), Madagascar (72), Tanzania (55) and Ethiopia (53). Onthe other hand, the Democratic Republic of Congo, with morespecies of global conservation concern than any other country inAfrica (47), has ‘only’ 15 sites identified under A1—although someof these sites are very large, one might expect further IBAs to beidentified for A1 species here in the future.

IBAs have been identified under the A1 criterion for all but 10of the 340 extant species of global conservation concern in Africa.Of the 10, seven are rarely recorded visitors to Africa from Eurasiaor other regions (all are known from various IBAs in Africa, butnot regularly and/or in significant numbers), while the remainingthree species are poorly known, taxonomically or otherwise.

Most species of global conservation concern in Africa are foundat several IBAs (mean = 8), and for those species that are migratoryor nomadic, these few sites form a network upon which their globalsurvival much depends, e.g. for Blue Swallow Hirundo atrocaerulea(Figure 9), White-winged Flufftail Sarothrura ayresi or SpottedGround Thrush Zoothera guttata.

The percentage at the top of the bar indicates the proportion of all IBAs that meet this category of criteria.The number at the base of the bar indicates the number of IBAs which meet only this category of criteria.

Total number of IBAs = 1,228 sites.

Figure 5. The size of individual Important Bird Areas in Africa.

Figure 6. The number of sites in Africa that meet the differentIBA criteria.

Figure 7. The proportion of IBAs in Africa that qualify underone or more of the categories A1–A4.


0

Size of individual IBA (km²)

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400400

450

Num

ber

of IB

As

Undefined <1 1–9 10–99 100–999 1,000–9,999 ≥10,000

Num

ber

of IB

As

0

Categories

100

300

200

400

500

600

700

800

900

Species of globalconservationconcern (A1)

Assemblage ofrestricted-range

species (A2)

Assemblage ofbiome-restricted

species (A3)

Congregatoryspecies (A4)

178

2

161

40%

64%

39%

67%

46


50 sites (4%) meet all fourcategories (A1–A4)

388 sites (32%) meet any oneof A1–A4

368 sites (30%) meet any twoof A1–A4

422 sites (34%) meet anythree of A1–A4

41


Some 77 extant species of global conservation concern (aboutone-quarter of such species in Africa) are known from only oneIBA, globally. These sedentary, non-migratory species arepermanently vulnerable to man-made change in their highlycircumscribed environments. Many such species are endemic toislands, whether oceanic—such as Mohéli Scops-owl Otusmoheliensis on Mwali island (KM003, Comoros) in the IndianOcean—or continental, such as the ‘sky islands’ of humidmountaintop forest surrounded by a sea of more arid habitat thatare found in, e.g., Warsangeli Linnet Carduelis johannis at Daalo(SO003, Somalia).

At the same time, one IBA can support many species of globalconservation concern. In fact, the average site that meets theA1 criterion holds three such species, and two sites in Africa holdmore than 20 such species: Zahamena National Park (MG047,Madagascar) with 22 species, and the Itombwe mountains (CD014,DR Congo) with 21. Clearly, conservation actions directed at anyparticular A1 site can usually benefit more than one threatenedspecies, and often will benefit considerably more than one.

■■■■■ Species of restricted rangeAbout 39% of IBAs (483 sites) meet the A2 criterion (Table 1),holding a significant assemblage of restricted-range bird species,i.e. any species with a small global range, defined as less than50,000 km². Most of these species have overlapping ranges withother such species, confined to small regions of the world termedEndemic Bird Areas (Stattersfield et al. 1998), therefore it isparticularly important to conserve the network of IBAs which havebeen identified for these species.

There are 39 Endemic Bird Areas (EBAs) in the African region,as well as 29 Secondary Areas (where only a single restricted-rangespecies is present)—see Appendix 4 for a complete list of these Areasand their species. At least one IBA has been identified for each ofthe 39 EBAs (and for 25 of the 29 Secondary Areas), ranging up toa maximum of 56 IBAs for the Upper Guinea forests EBA (thelargest EBA in Africa, at c.340,000 km²). See Appendix 9 for moreinformation on the number of IBAs meeting the A2 criterion, bycountry and by EBA.

Figure 10 shows in more detail the distribution of IBAs selectedfor a particular EBA. As can be seen, all but one of the restricted-range species of the EBA occur within the network of chosen IBAs.

Figure 8. The network ofglobally Important Bird Areasidentified for Lesser KestrelFalco naumanni in Africa,Europe and the Middle East.

Figure 9. The network of Important Bird Areas identified for aspecies of global conservation concern, the migratory Blue SwallowHirundo atrocaerulea.

The process of identifying IBAs in the Asianpart of the species’s range is still ongoing,therefore no sites are mapped for this region.

IBA’s holding globallyimportant numbers of

Lesser Kestrel(Falco naumanni)

Breeding seasonOn migrationNon breeding season

This highly social species breedsin scattered colonies right acrossthe temperate steppe zone, fromPortugal to Mongolia.

IBAs holding globallyimportant numbersof Lesser KestrelFalco naumanni

Breeding seasonOn migrationNon-breeding season

IBAs holding globallyimportant numbers ofBlue SwallowHirundo atrocaeruleaNon-breeding season (6 sites)

Breeding season (19 sites)

The known non-breeding rangeis centred on moist tropicalgrasslands in the Lake Victoriabasin, but is still poorly known.

The world population of 3,000birds breeds in the temperategrasslands of high mountainranges in south-central Africa.

Nearly all of the worldpopulation (c.55,000 birds)moves to sub-Saharan Africaduring the boreal winter, mostheading for southern Africa. Thegrasslands of East Africa are animportant staging area duringthis trans-equatorial migration.

Large congregations still feedor roost at favoured sites inthe grasslands of southernAfrica during the australsummer, though numbers havedeclined greatly over the lastfour decades.

42


N I G E R I A

C A M E R O O N

S Ã O T O M É &P R Í N C I P E

C O N G O

C E N T R A LA F R I C A NR E P U B L I C

G A B O N

E Q U A T O R I A LG U I N E A

Number of restrictedrange species

42–31

0 200

km

400

The distribution of many restricted-range species are still poorly known, and the boundary of theEBA is necessarily approximate (the boundary here follows that published in Stattersfield et al.1998). Recent fieldwork has extended the known distribution of some of the restricted-rangespecies, and the EBA boundary will be re-aligned as further distributional data are obtained.

Figure 10. Example: IBAcoverage of a particularEBA—the Cameroon andGabon lowlands EndemicBird Area (EBA 085).

EBAcode EBA name

078 Cape Verde Islands 4 9 109 4,000 3 1

079 Tristan Islands 4 3 114 110 100 1

080 Gough Island 2 1 65 65 100 1

081 Annobón 3 1 230 17 100 1

082 São Tomé 21 3 200 860 23 1

083 Príncipe 11 1 50 140 36 1

084 Upper Guinea forests 15 56 26,207 340,000 8 5

085 Cameroon and Gabon lowlands 6 24 54,621 280,000 20 5

086 Cameroon mountains 29 21 14,984 14,000 100 3

087 Western Angola 14 9 26,550 150,000 18 2

088 Cape fynbos 6 9 21,510 110,000 20 1

089 South African forests 7 23 7,745 91,000 9 2

090 Lesotho highlands 3 9 5,009 30,000 17 2

091 Southern African grasslands 3 4 1,081 110,000 1 1

092 South-east African coast 4 14 7,197 87,000 8 5

093 West Malagasy dry forests 8 19 8,261 150,000 6 1

094 East Malagasy wet forests 23 30 21,694 160,000 14 1

095 East Malagasy wetlands 8 11 2,464 17,000 14 1

096 West Malagasy wetlands 7 23 16,630 26,000 64 1

097 South Malagasy spiny forests 10 10 5,989 46,000 13 1

1. See Appendix 4 for a complete list of species for each EBA; the totals exclude one presumed Extinct species, Nesillas aldabrana (EBA 099).2. The total number of IBAs is not the sum of the figures in the column, since a minority of sites meet the A2 criterion for more than one EBA. A total of 50 IBAs meet the A2 criterion solely for

Secondary Areas (not EBAs).3. Where a site meets the A2 criterion for more than one EBA, the site’s area has been apportioned equally between EBAs, so as to avoid duplication when summing for the total area.4. Figures from Stattersfield et al. (1998).5. Most of the IBAs that meet A2 for EBA 115 are of undefined area, therefore the percentage of IBA/EBA area is considerably underestimated.

EBAcode EBA name

098 Comoro Islands 18 9 414 2,200 19 2

099 Aldabra 3 1 332 160 100 1

100 Granitic Seychelles 11 11 91 240 38 1

101 Réunion 7 8 216 2,500 9 1

102 Mauritius 10 9 198 1,900 10 1

103 Rodrigues 2 1 50 110 45 1

104 Eastern Zimbabwe mountains 3 10 6,596 12,000 55 2

105 Tanzania–Malawi mountains 37 33 16,056 72,000 22 5

106 Albertine Rift mountains 37 18 24,370 56,000 44 5

107 Eastern DR Congo lowlands 6 7 23,685 75,000 32 2

108 Serengeti plains 6 11 30,440 160,000 19 2

109 Kenyan mountains 9 21 18,793 48,000 39 3

110 Pemba 4 1 1,014 1,000 100 1

111 East African coastal forests 7 18 2,898 25,000 12 3

112 Central Somali coast 2 4 6,150 15,000 41 1

113 Jubba and Shabeelle valleys 4 9 1,857 35,000 5 2

114 South Ethiopian highlands 5 7 4,364 37,000 12 1

115 Central Ethiopian highlands5 4 9 942 120,000 1 2

116 North Somali mountains 3 3 5,450 32,000 17 1

338 433 364,624 2,311,302 16

No.

of r

estri

cted

-rang

e sp

p. in

EBA

1

No.

of I

BAs t

hat m

eet A

2 cr

iterio

n 2

Tota

l are

a of

IBAs

that

mee

tA2

crit

erio

n (k

m²) 3

Appr

oxim

ate

area

of E

BA (k

m²) 4

% IB

A/EB

A ar

eaN

o. o

f cou

ntrie

s w

ith s

ites

mee

ting

A2 c

riter

ion

No.

of r

estri

cted

-rang

e sp

p. in

EBA

1

No.

of I

BAs t

hat m

eet A

2 cr

iterio

n 2

Tota

l are

a of

IBAs

that

mee

tA2

crit

erio

n (k

m²) 3

Appr

oxim

ate

area

of E

BA (k

m²) 4

% IB

A/EB

A ar

eaN

o. o

f cou

ntrie

s w

ith s

ites

mee

ting

A2 c

riter

ion

Table 2. The coverage of Endemic Bird Areas by IBAs in the African region, under the A2 criterion.

Restricted-range species at IBAsmeeting A2 criterion

Nigeria 3 1 3 — — — 1

Cameroon 14 9 12 2 — — 6Central African Republic 1 — — 1 1 — —

Equatorial Guinea 2 1 2 — 1 — 2Gabon 4 3 2 1 2 — 3

Total number of sites 24 14 19 4 4 0 12

No.

of I

BAs

mee

ting

A2 c

riter

ion

Hiru

ndo

fulig

inos

aFo

rest

Swal

low

Pica

thar

tes

orea

sG

rey-

neck

ed R

ockf

owl

Brad

ypte

rus

gran

dis

Dja

Riv

er W

arbl

er

Batis

min

ima

Gab

on B

atis

Ploc

eus

bate

siBa

tes’s

Wea

ver

Mal

imbu

s ra

chel

iae

Rach

el’s

Mal

imbe

The area of the circle around each IBA shows theactual area of the IBA, to scale with the map.

Bates’s Weaver Ploceus batesi is an irregular wanderer to one of the sites in Cameroon,and may occur at another (further fieldwork is needed).

43


Biome

Complete

Sudan–Guinea Savanna

Transition zone withGuinea–Congo Forestsbiome (A05)

National Protection

PartialNone

0 1000

km

500

Figure 11. Example: IBA coverage of a particular biome—the Sudan–Guinea Savannabiome (A04). See p. 21 for colour photos of this biome.

CountryBurkina Faso 32 7 30 94Benin 34 3 29 85DR Congo 29 1 15 52Central African Republic 44 4 44 100Côte d’Ivoire 39 3 30 77Cameroon 45 7 41 91Eritrea 8 3 8 100Ethiopia 16 5 15 94Ghana 37 6 31 84Gambia 30 2 29 97Guinea 33 7 29 88Guinea-Bissau 22 6 22 100Kenya 13 2 8 62Mali 35 4 29 83Niger 26 2 24 92Nigeria 42 12 40 95Sudan 36 12 33 92Sierra Leone 28 3 11 39Senegal 33 4 27 82Chad 37 3 16 43Togo 38 3 32 84Uganda 22 6 22 100Average 31 5 26 83(range) (8–45) (1–12) (8–44) (39–100)

No. o

f spp

. res

tricte

d to

this

biom

e re

cord

ed n

ation

ally

No. o

f IBA

s mee

ting

A3 cr

iterio

n fo

r thi

s bio

me

No. o

f bio

me-

restr

icted

spp.

in IB

As m

eetin

g A3

crite

rion

for t

his b

iom

e

% c

over

age

of b

iom

e-re

strict

edsp

p. b

y IBA

s

A04 – Sudan–Guinea Savanna biome

Table 3. IBA coverage of avian biomes in Africa, under theA3 criterion.

Biome nameBiome See pp. 17–32 for colourcode photos illustrating each biome.A01 Mediterranean North Africa 17 39 24,093 960,000 3 5A02 Sahara–Sindian 22 55 278,824 7,800,000 4 12A03 Sahel 16 38 142,884 2,940,000 5 11A04 Sudan–Guinea Savanna 54 105 283,245 4,330,000 7 22A05 Guinea–Congo Forests 278 160 252,751 3,630,000 7 24A06 Lake Victoria Basin 12 33 14,083 320,000 4 7A07 Afrotropical Highlands 228 163 92,209 790,000 12 19A08 Somali–Masai 129 73 186,064 1,980,000 9 8A09 East African Coast 36 59 72,035 530,000 14 8A10 Zambezian 67 90 229,921 4,220,000 5 10A11 Kalahari–Highveld 13 19 198,641 1,350,000 15 5A12 Namib–Karoo 23 12 73,241 580,000 13 3A13 Fynbos 9 11 21,873 100,000 22 1A14 West Malagasy 24 49 32,547 350,000 9 1A15 East Malagasy 46 4 35 24,239 250,000 10 1

974 941 1,926,650 30,130,000 61. See Appendix 6 for a complete list of species by biome.2. The area of individual IBAs has been apportioned so as to account for the fact that some

sites meet the A3 criterion for more than one biome—thus, if a site meets A3 for threebiomes, 33% of the IBAs area is assigned to each biome.

3. Estimated using GIS; not corrected for elevation; major lakes are excluded from these figures.4. Total includes one species presumed Extinct (Coua delalandei).

No. o

f bio

me-

restr

icted

spp.

1

No. o

f IBA

s mee

ting A

3 cr

iterio

n fo

r eac

h bi

ome

Total

are

a of

IBAs

mee

ting

A3 c

riter

ion

(km²)2

Appr

ox. a

rea

of b

iom

e in

Afri

ca (k

m²)3

% o

f bio

me a

rea c

over

ed b

y IBA

s mee

ting A

3 cr

iterio

n

No. o

f cou

ntrie

s with

IBAs

qua

lifyin

g for

each

bio

me

In fact, all but four of the 366 restricted-range bird species that areextant in Africa have been recorded from one or more IBAs inimportant numbers. Some 242 of these 366 species (66%) are alsoof global conservation concern, giving added importance to siteschosen under the A2 criterion.

Most small-island countries or territories in the Africanregion are also EBAs—e.g. São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles,Comoros, the Tristan da Cunha island group (St Helena) andPemba (Tanzania)—and have been well-covered by IBAs in thispublication, since in most cases the island is also the IBA (Table 2).However, most continental EBAs have also been well-covered, eventhough some are much larger than island EBAs (see Table 2).

A few EBAs show a lower coverage than is desirable. Forinstance, in the Horn of Africa, where little conservation action orfieldwork has been possible in the recent past, thus making IBAidentification and selection more difficult, only 5% of the area ofthe Jubba and Shabeelle valleys EBA (EBA 113; total areac.35,000 km²) has been identified as IBAs under the A2 criterion.The relevant IBAs (though relatively small in size) still hold thefull complement of the EBA's restricted-range species, as far as isknown, but it would clearly be preferable to identify further IBAsin Endemic Bird Areas such as this, where possible.

Very approximately, the EBAs in Africa total 2,310,000 km² inextent, while the 433 IBAs selected for these EBAs coverc.365,000 km², c.16% of the total EBA area and c.1.2% of the landarea of Africa (Table 2). The effective protection and managementof this subset of the IBA estate, a relatively small area on the globalscale, could make a major contribution towards conservingterrestrial biodiversity on Earth, given that EBAs (and SecondaryAreas) together hold many other African bird species as well, andgenerally are also rich in restricted-range species of taxonomicgroups other than birds.

■■■■■ Biome-restricted speciesAbout two-thirds of IBAs (64%, 786 sites) have been identified onthe basis that they support a significant assemblage of biome-restricted species, thus meeting the A3 criterion (Table 1). Inapplying the A3 criterion, 15 biomes have been recognized inAfrica (Table 3; see colour map and colour plates on pp. 17–32),pertaining only to the African mainland and Madagascar—thus,for the 10 small-island states or territories in the African region,this criterion was not applicable. Overall, 973 out of the 2,310 extantAfrican bird species (42%) are globally restricted to one of thesebiomes (see Appendix 5 for a list of species by biome and bycountry).

All 48 countries or territories in Africa that were eligible for thebiome criterion (A3) have identified at least one IBA under thiscriterion. Countries which have designated particularly highnumbers of IBAs under A3 are Madagascar (84 sites), South Africa

A total of 105 IBAs in 22 countries meet theA3 criterion for the Sudan–Guinea Savannabiome, together holding all 54 species that arerestricted to the biome, while covering only7% of the biome’s area.

44


(56), Tanzania (49) and Ethiopia (46). On average, sites that meetA3 comprise c.90% of the national IBA area and c.7% of thenational land area. While sites identified under A3 clearly form amajor component (by area) of the national IBA inventory in mostcountries, it should be noted that 77% of these sites also meet othertypes of criteria. Appendix 9 gives further details of the number ofIBAs meeting the A3 criterion, by country and by biome.

Figure 11 shows the distribution of A3 sites in more detail, fora chosen biome. It can be seen that the sites are well-distributedthroughout the biome, they cover all of the species restricted to thebiome, their combined area is a small but significant proportion ofthe total biome area, and a high proportion of the sites chosenalready have some form of protection or recognition under nationallaw. At the same time, it is clear that currently unprotected sitesform a critical part of the network of sites within this biome.

Similar analysis of all biomes will help to identify any gaps incoverage, but Figure 11 shows that the site-selection process forthis category has worked well, both in terms of geographicalcoverage of the biome by sites and in capturing the species restrictedto the biome, with 966 out of the 973 extant species (more than99%) included at one or more IBAs and an average of 83% of speciesincluded within the national network.

■■■■■ Congregatory speciesA total of 497 sites (c.40% of IBAs in Africa) qualify on the basisthat they hold globally important congregations of one or morebird species, thus meeting one or more of the A4 category ofcriteria (Figure 12). About one third of these sites qualify as IBAsunder the A4 category alone—a higher proportion than forcategories A1, A2 or A3 (Figure 6). Of the four criteria in the A4category, 416 sites meet the A4i criterion, qualifying for one ormore congregatory waterbird species, 108 sites meet theA4ii criterion, selected for congregatory seabirds or landbirds,220 sites meet the A4iii criterion, holding 20,000 or more waterbirds(or at least 10,000 pairs of seabird), and 10 sites meet theA4iv criterion, being migration bottleneck sites for significantnumbers of large, vulnerable species that congregate, e.g. storksand raptors (Table 1).

Countries with at least 20 sites that are important forcongregatory species, meeting any of the A4 criteria, are Morocco,Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa and Madagascar.

These countries, together with Algeria and Namibia, are particularlyimportant for congregatory waterbirds, with at least 15 sites percountry meeting the A4i criterion. South Africa is also importantfor seabird or landbird congregations, with 25 sites identified underthe A4ii criterion (16 for seabirds, nine for landbirds)—othercountries with more than five or more such sites (all seabird sites)are French Southern Territories (16), Réunion (9), St Helena group(8), Seychelles (6) and Cape Verde (5). The countries with the mostsites qualifying under the A4iii criterion are a subset of those alreadymentioned for the A4i/A4ii criteria, while all of the migrationbottleneck (A4iv) sites lie in the Mediterranean coastal states ofNorth Africa, apart from one site in Djibouti.

Any site qualifying under A4i or A4ii can support more thanone congregatory species in important numbers. Most A4i sitessupport five species of waterbird or fewer, but the maximum heldby any site is 29 species (ZM011: Kafue flats, Zambia), while up to24 species of seabird/landbird meet the A4ii criterion per site(TF002: Île de l’Est, French Southern Territories).

Overall, sites have been identified for 183 congregatory species,out of the 282 extant species in Africa that are considered eligible(theoretically) under the A4i/A4ii criteria (see Appendix 6 forcomplete species lists by criterion). An average of 10 sites have beenidentified per species under A4i/A4ii, with a maximum of 83 sitesper species (for Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber).

Many congregatory species are migratory or nomadic, and thenetworks of sites identified for these species are therefore importantat different stages of the annual life-cycle, during breeding,migrating and non-breeding seasons, with birds moving acrosscountry boundaries. Cooperation and coordination in conservationactivities between countries can obviously benefit such species, andsuch action is urgently needed, particularly where congregatoryspecies are also of global conservation concern, e.g. Lesser FlamingoPhoenicopterus minor (a network of 22 important sites is identifiedin this publication) and Marbled Teal Marmaronetta angustirostris(a network of 30 sites).

THREATS AT IBAs

A summary of the main threats affecting a sample of 345 IBAs in20 countries in the African region is presented in Figure 13.

Figure 12. Important BirdAreas for significantcongregations of birds inAfrica (sites meeting theA4 criteria).

Note the concentrations of inland wetland IBAs(important for congregatory waterbirds) alongthe Sahelian belt, the Great Rift Valley and thevalleys of the Nile and the major flood-plainrivers of southern Africa. Coastal wetland IBAsare particularly prominent in north-west Africa,extreme west and south-west Africa and westernMadagascar. The most remote oceanic islandshold the major concentrations of nestingseabirds. Migration bottlenecks for storks, raptorsand other vulnerable soaring species lie at narrowstraits in the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

45


in only about 13 countries out of the 58 (22%) does the overlapreach less than 50%.

However, 44% of sites (covering 403,839 km², or 19% of the totalIBA area) are not legally recognized or officially protected by thegovernments concerned (Figure 14). Countries with more than 90%of their IBA area officially unprotected are São Tomé and Príncipe,the Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Lesotho and Somalia. Everywherein Africa, and especially in these countries, there is a need forgovernments and local authorities to assess the status of unprotectedIBAs and to consider applying some form of official recognition,legal protection and/or effective management.

■■■■■ International statusA total of 129 IBAs (11% of the total) overlap with areas that havebeen designated or recognized internationally as globally importantfor biodiversity conservation, under the three mainintergovernmental mechanisms that are available for this purpose:the World Heritage Convention, UNESCO’s Man and BiosphereProgramme, and the Ramsar Convention. Thus, 27 IBAs overlapwith natural World Heritage Sites (of which there are 35 in Africa),44 IBAs with Biosphere Reserves (of which there are 55 in Africa)and 76 with Ramsar Sites (98 in Africa). In nearly all cases, theboundaries of the IBA and the internationally recognized area areidentical.

Figure 15. The number of Important Bird Areas in Africa thatoverlap with one or more internationally designatedconservation areas.

Figure 14. The overlap between Important Bird Areas in Africaand areas protected by national law.

Figure 13. The threats that affect Important Bird Areas in a setof 20 countries in Africa.

‘Agricultural encroachment’ includes fire.‘Over-exploitation’ includes hunting and poaching of birds and other fauna, and extraction oftimber products, including fuelwood.‘Other’ includes negative impacts of tourism, excessive erosion, introduction of exotic species,damming, etc.

Mining includes quarrying and oil extraction.The 20 countries are Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin,Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, DR Congo,Angola, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya.

The percentage at the end of each bar is the proportion of the IBAs that are affected by thethreat (out of a total of 345 sites).

Total number of IBAs = 1,228 sites

‘Internationally designated conservation areas’ comprise natural World Heritage Sites,Biosphere Reserves and Ramsar Sites.

Proportions are calculated by total area of IBAs, based on 1,162 sites covering 2,079,306 km²(the areas of 64 IBAs remain undefined).

‘Areas protected by national law’ include not only National Parks and Nature Reserves, butalso any types of designation aimed at conservation of renewable natural resources (includingareas set aside for production and exploitation, e.g. some categories of Forest Reserve orHunting Reserve). The definition thus excludes privately protected areas.

No overlap19% of total IBA area

(403,027 km²)Average IBA area = 748 km²

539 IBAs

Partial overlap11% of total IBA area

(230,968 km²)Average IBA area = 2,406 km²

96 IBAs

Complete overlap70% of total IBA area

(1,445,312 km²)Average IBA area = 2,437 km²

593 IBAs

Overlap11%

(129 IBAs)

No overlap89%

(1,099 IBAs)

Numbers of IBAs0

Agricultural encroachment/habitat clearance

Over-exploitation

Logging

Over-grazing

Other

Mining

Pollution

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 180160

7%

9%

14%

14%

20%

47%

51%

1. HEATH, M. F. AND EVANS, M. I., COMPILERS (2000) Important Bird Areas in Europe: priority sites for conservation. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International.

Agricultural encroachment and/or habitat clearance are reportedto threaten 51% of these sites, with over-exploitation (includinghunting and poaching of birds and other fauna, extraction of timberproducts including fuelwood, etc.) affecting 47%. Thecorresponding figures for these threats at European IBAs1 are 37%and 27% respectively. The IBAs of both regions are thus muchimpacted by agricultural land-uses. The commonest threat atEuropean sites, however, is tourism and recreation (44%),something which is reported to affect only c.3% of IBAs in thisdata-set. By contrast, the proportion of sites that are threatenedby commercial logging (20%) is much higher than in Europe. These20 African countries hold much of the continent’s forest, and it isclear that management and/or protection need to be greatlyimproved at many of the IBAs, if they are to retain the forest-dependent bird species, and other biodiversity, that they currentlyhold.

THE PROTECTION STATUS OF IBAs

■■■■■ National statusSome 597 out of the 1,228 IBAs (49%) overlap completely withareas designated by national law for the purpose of natureconservation. The natural values or importance for biodiversity ofthese sites have been officially recognized by the governments ofthe countries concerned, and normally this has involved some legalcommitment to protect/manage them in order to perpetuate thesevalues.

In reality, this protection/management achieves varying degreesof effectiveness, depending on the political, social, financial andlegal constraints that are present in the country concerned.Nevertheless, the fact that 1,442,595 km² of the total IBA network(70% by area) already has some form of legal protection orrecognition is encouraging (Figure 14)—and illustrates the scale ofgovernmental commitment to natural-resource conservation inAfrica. Of the 685 IBAs that overlap to some extent with thenational protected-area systems of countries in Africa, at least 462IBAs (67% of this total) overlap with National Parks, WildlifeReserves and other protected-area designation-types that imply astrong focus on long-term biodiversity conservation.

Existing protected areas have formed a strong basis foridentifying IBAs in Africa. At least 17 of the 58 countries in theAfrican region (c.29%) have identified an IBA network that overlapsby more than 90% with their national protected-area network, and

46


■■■■■ WHAT SHOULD BE DONE NEXT?

Previous chapters outline the background to the Important BirdAreas programme in Africa, and provide compelling evidence ofthe need for site-based conservation of birds, as well as indicatingthe means to achieve this. We synthesize elements of these chaptershere, and draw out and illustrate recommendations for a range ofactions.

Human development faces severe pressure in Africa, pressurethat is having a radical impact on the continent’s landscapes, itsfauna and flora. A number of the elements needed for a strategy toovercome these problems, to achieve solutions that arecomplementary, sound and sustainable, can be illustrated by theIBA programme.

BirdLife Partners aim to respond to experience and to build,wherever possible, unique competence, from research to advocacy,monitoring to education, that will enable them to work with a fullrange of stakeholders to achieve and sustain conservation action.It must be stressed that BirdLife International lacks the mandateand the financial and human resources to ensure that all IBAs areprotected and adequately managed. It does, however, have theinterest, mission and focus to bring together the various players toform strong partnerships that will make a significantcontribution.

This section does not seek to be fully comprehensive, but ratherto demonstrate key means-objectives or tools, both generally andwith reference to boxed examples, which are illustrative of thechallenges that lie ahead. Recommendations are made in theknowledge that many of them will evolve as the work of conservingAfrica’s biodiversity unfolds.

SHAPING THE CONSERVATION AGENDA

■■■■■ Research

RECOMMENDATION 1: Survey thoroughly those IBAs thatare less well known, and identify and survey potentialadditional sites, as necessary.

The 1,228 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) listed in this directory mustbecome (or continue to be) key components of Africa’s wider strategyfor conserving biodiversity. IBAs have many strengths, not least thatthey are objectively defined, using established, globally applicablecriteria, that give them weight and credibility. Regardless of theirsize, this means that IBAs are an effective global conservationcurrency, one that is becoming increasingly well recognized.

Nonetheless, the sites listed here are defined by today’sknowledge, and it is clear that there are many potential sites that

need to be identified by a continuing process of field survey. Someparts of the continent were inaccessible during the period of datacollection for this book, requiring that a number of sites be assessedand described here using information that is old and, possibly, nolonger accurate. In other areas, financial and logistic constraintsprevented or limited survey work, sometimes prohibiting localparticipation. Such limitations have been mitigated bycomprehensive reviews by desk studies, but it is particularly in thesecountries and areas where future research will need to be focused.

Central to the gathering, analysis and publication of informationon IBAs is the belief that birds, and the sites and habitats whichsupport them, have the potential to act as indicators of widerbiodiversity, and the environment in general (Box 1).

■■■■■ Monitoring

RECOMMENDATION 2: Establish monitoring programmes forall IBAs involving, wherever possible, relevant local stake-holders, and develop and share effective monitoring protocols.

This publication sets important baselines from which progress inthe long-term conservation of IBAs can be monitored. It is vitalthat trends in the status of IBAs are identified, so as to provideearly warning of change. Assessments can be made in terms ofpresence and population sizes of key indicator species (Box 1), andin the success and failure of management interventions undertaken.Data are required not only to review priorities, but also tounderstand the reasons for change in the status of sites and thespecies that depend on them. With some 49% of sites overlappingwith Africa’s protected-area networks, there is considerablepotential for working closely with management authorities. Peopleliving close to or in IBAs also play a vital role in monitoring theirstatus (Box 2).

■■■■■ Planning

RECOMMENDATION 3: Ensure that IBAs are adequatelyincorporated in all local, national, regional and globalplanning, both within and outside the BirdLife Partnership.

Baseline information provided by the IBA research, and reviseddata gathered and synthesized as a result of monitoring, allows fora continuing process of setting priorities and planning conservationinterventions. Planning takes place at site, site-adjacent and nationallevels, and one feature of IBAs is that networks of sites may beidentified, significant for species with extended ranges, such asintercontinental and intra-African migrants. It is clear that thesuccessful conservation of much biodiversity involves a largenumber of sites. With their disregard for political boundaries,migratory birds provide excellent flagships for conservation actionsthat can catalyse important regional and international collaborationbetween governments (Box 3). This is also particularly true oftransboundary sites of high biodiversity significance.

Box 1. Birds as biodiversity indicators

Developing environmental indicators, including those forbiodiversity, is increasingly seen as an issue among institutions likethe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,where there have been calls to make them more useful to policy-makers. These are linked to demands for setting appropriatebaselines and targets from which to measure progress in biodiversityconservation. Clearly IBAs are one example. Indicators areconsidered to need a number of specific qualities—they should, forexample, be quantitative, credible scientifically, understood easily,relevant to policy development, as well as be realistic to collect andanalyse, and be driven by users. Relative to many other taxa, birdsare good indicators of biodiversity: high in the food chain, theyintegrate changes lower down; a wealth of data has been (or can be)collected by well-established networks of volunteers; populationsizes and trends are often well known, as is their conservation status.There is therefore increasing interest in the use of ornithological datato indicate the effects of environmental change on biodiversity. Howeffectively we are conserving the world’s birds is a means ofassessing how successful we are in conserving ecosystem functionsand biodiversity as a whole.

Box 2. Monitoring and Site Support Groups

African BirdLife Partners are encouraging Site Support Groups (SSGs—see ‘Introduction’ chapter) to play a central role in monitoring at sites,both warning of threats, and providing a platform for people to gain awide range of experience. Monitoring provides understanding of sitesthat allows SSG members and others to work together to establish linkswith local administrations and with external agencies. SSG memberscannot easily be ignored by decision-makers at any level. They alsocontribute to monitoring in wider contexts, organizing andparticipating in national and international activities, for example theAfrican Waterbird Census of Wetlands International. SSGs are one ofthe key mechanisms to secure a future for IBAs, and 10 BirdLifePartners in Africa are supporting 49 SSGs already. Nature Kenya has setup an intern programme, where candidates from one SSG are fundedto spend time at another, and to work with the group there to share andgain experience in a wide range of skills, including monitoring.

47


■■■■■ Taking site action

RECOMMENDATION 4: Plan and carry out adequatemanagement action at all IBAs, and for those sites known toface immediate threats, develop and undertakeappropriately scaled interventions urgently.

As this publication demonstrates, IBAs are subject to a wide varietyof threats, including agricultural encroachment and habitatclearance, commercial logging, fuelwood extraction and hunting.An equally wide variety of management interventions are calledfor, activities that range from simply monitoring bird populations,guiding visitors, through more extensive protected-areamanagement (Box 4), to full-scale integrated conservation anddevelopment projects (ICDPs).

Significant experience exists in the BirdLife Partnership as aresult of work at sites such as Arabuko-Sokoke Forest in Kenya(IBA KE007), the Hadejia-Nguru wetlands in Nigeria (IBA NG021)and Kaboré-Tambi National Park in Burkina Faso (IBA BF006).At the last-mentioned site, the national government has chargedNATURAMA, the BirdLife Partner in Burkina Faso, withresponsibility for its management, under a ‘Protocole d’Accord’signed in 1993. BirdLife has established a Site Action Unit tofacilitate the management of integrated conservation anddevelopment, through support to individual Partners with site-management experience, and through directly developing andleading site interventions where there is no Partner or where

Partners request support. This is becoming an important additionaltool in the range of options required to effect IBA conservationthroughout Africa, especially in those countries where there is noBirdLife representation at present.

SHARING INFORMATION

■■■■■ Education

RECOMMENDATION 5: Integrate appropriate IBAinformation into teaching materials and into the curricula ofteacher training institutions.

Information about IBAs also provides valuable material foreducational purposes (Box 5). As well as for more formal education,the IBA process depends on developing individual and institutionalcapacity across a wide range of subjects. These range from tour-guiding skills at a local level, to the ability to manage an informationdatabase, to legal skills for taking action at a national level tochallenge decisions likely to harm specific sites. The range ofcapacity required is intimidating, and BirdLife Partners worktogether to provide these skills by sharing experience, runningtraining sessions, seconding staff between Partners, and so on.Courses and workshops have been run ranging from birdidentification for monitoring to sound financial management forNGOs.

Since 2001, an international training programme called ‘Buildingon Experience’ has been coordinated by the Royal Society for theProtection of Birds (the BirdLife Partner in the UK). This is amodular series of skill-sharing workshops aimed at helping to trainleaders from within the BirdLife Partnership in a wide range ofcompetencies, including advocacy and communications. Traineesoften find themselves working with colleagues from differentcountries in different continents. BirdLife Partners and theSecretariat also manage internships to develop individual’sexperience. Staff may be seconded for periods to gain specific skillsor to gain a more general understanding of how BirdLife works.

■■■■■ Communications

RECOMMENDATION 6: Maximize the use of informationon IBAs in a wide range of public fora, including specificcampaigns to promote the conservation of species, sites andhabitats.

By addressing children and young people through targetededucation (Box 5), and more formal external audiences throughfocused advocacy (see below), there remains a large area for moregeneral communications. The promotion of IBAs is critical totheir conservation, and BirdLife is committed to sharing anddisseminating information to as wide a constituency as possible.Many BirdLife Partners have established websites, as has theBirdLife Partnership as a whole (www.birdlife.net). This providesaccess to parts of Birdlife’s World Bird Database (WBDB)—see

Box 3. Blue Swallow

The African Species Working Group (see ‘Introduction’ chapter) isdeveloping Species Action Plans (SAPs) for a number of globallythreatened species (see ‘Methodology’ chapter and preceding‘Overview’). One example is the Blue Swallow Hirundo atrocaerulea(see Figure 9, p41), an intra-African migrant which nests in highlandgrasslands of south-central Africa—e.g. Blue Swallow Natural HeritageSite in South Africa (IBA ZA011) and Nyanga Mountains in Zimbabwe(IBA ZW006)—and migrates north to eastern Africa to spend the non-breeding season over rough grasslands, pasture, wetlands and agriculturallands, e.g. Busia grasslands in Kenya (IBA KE057). Threatened at bothends of its range by changing land use, the Blue Swallow acts as aflagship for some vulnerable habitats, and clearly demonstrates theoften transboundary nature of conservation action. As a result ofBirdLife lobbying, this has been recognized under the Convention forMigratory Species, with the species being listed on Appendix 1(dealing with migratory species that are considered endangered).

Box 4. Mount Oku

Mount Oku (IBA CM012), also known as the Kilum-Ijim Forest, innorth-west Cameroon, is the largest remaining area of forest in theBamenda Highlands region. The conservation of this forest is the besthope for the continued survival of Bannerman’s Turaco Tauracobannermani and Banded Wattle-eye Platysteira laticincta, bothrestricted to the Bamenda Highlands, as well as for numerous otherlocally endemic plants and animals. The forest is important to localpeople (over 200,000 of whom live within a day’s walk), as a sourceof water, firewood, timber and other forest products, and for its role inlocal traditions and culture. BirdLife has worked with the Ministry ofthe Environment and Forests (MINEF) in executing the Kilum-IjimForest project for over 12 years. The project is working to conserve thebiodiversity value of the forest by giving local people both the impetusand the means to achieve this for themselves.

A community forest-management scheme is being put in place inwhich each of the local communities living around the forest isdeveloping a management plan for the use of its area of forest. Thecommunities have established forest-management institutions whichwork together with the traditional authorities and the local forestryservice. The project is also implementing a programme whichimproves livelihoods in ways compatible with forest conservation. It isevident that the people living around the Kilum-Ijim forest appreciateits value to them and others, and are keen to manage it sustainably.The BirdLife project is helping them to develop the economic andinstitutional basis to do this.

Box 5. Working with school curricula

The education programme of BirdLife South Africa, which is run incooperation with national and provincial education authorities,follows the theme of sustainable development, and is based on abooklet entitled ‘Learning for Sustainable Living’. Following therevision of South Africa’s education system, the programme providesmaterials that are needed for the new outcomes-based educationcurriculum, and focuses on issues such as water and soil, as the basisfor learning programmes in human and social sciences, mathematicsand language. Workshops on ‘Learning for Sustainable Living’ held inthe Grassland Biosphere Reserve (IBA ZA016) have dovetailed wellwith training programmes for bird-guides from local communities atthe Wakkerstroom centre, making local school children and adultsaware of the long-term benefits of the IBA programme. A similarprogramme has been developed and undertaken by the BirdLifePartner in Sierra Leone where the government has given the schemestrong support. Such models could be applied more widely across theregion.

48


Box 1 in the ‘Methodology’ chapter. The widespread popularityof birds, and concerns for their conservation, all lend weight tousing birds for raising awareness about the wider environment,and the links between people’s uses of natural resources and thethreats they cause to birds (Box 6).

■■■■■ Advocacy

RECOMMENDATION 7: Ensure IBA information is availableto all decision-makers and planners, particularly in thosegovernment departments and agencies responsible for theenvironment.

Beyond education and more popular communication,conservation management of IBAs requires a wide range offocused advocacy activities with decision-makers. Advocacyranges from the active provision of information to specificprocesses, such as the review of national protected-arealegislation, to the development of sectoral policies on issues likeclimate change. Building close working relationships is seen asa key component, as is, in many cases, the provision of data,analysis and advice. In South Africa, for example, a member ofstaff from the Department of Environmental Affairs andTourism has noted that “the southern African IBA directory isalready considered to be a vital reference source and we expectit will be consulted and referred to in any environmental reportor similar assessment done in South Africa”. In Ghana, amemorandum of agreement has been signed between theGovernment and the Ghana Wildlife Society (the Birdlife Partnerin Ghana), to work in partnership for the conservation andmanagement of all IBAs in the country.

Moreover, BirdLife acknowledges the critical role and influenceof development spending. The Partnership has been working closelywith a wide range of funding institutions, both to help ensure thatfunds are spent in places that are genuinely globally important,like IBAs, and, where possible, to lever resources for the BirdLifePartnership itself (see Box 7).

■■■■■ Building partnerships

RECOMMENDATION 8: Establish and develop collaborationswith and between as many other conservation and developmentstakeholders as necessary to pursue IBA conservation.

BirdLife is a Partnership of national NGOs that has agreed tocollaborate to achieve certain key shared goals. There are, of course,many more sites than which the BirdLife Partnership can becomeactively involved, particularly since a large number of countriesare currently outside the Partnership. Collaboration is essential toachieve conservation goals.

This collaboration extends to a wide range of other partners,from local community-based organizations working in classichumanitarian development, such as primary health, to numerousnational, regional and international conservation NGOs. BirdLifetherefore works closely with other conservation bodies includingConservation International, the World Wide Fund for Nature, theWildlife Conservation Society, Fauna and Flora International, andWetlands International (Box 8). Collaboration ranges from sharingof information (e.g. as in the Biodiversity Conservation InformationSystem, BCIS) through joint planning and identification ofpriorities (e.g. participation in ecosystem profiling and priority-setting workshops for the Upper Guinea Forest, the Congo Basinand the Albertine Rift) to joint project implementation.

■■■■■ Working locally

RECOMMENDATION 9: Build democratic structuresthrough which people can pursue local, national, regionaland global action for IBA conservation.

BirdLife aims to create an environment where people’s ability toinfluence change is a vital ingredient. Catalysing positive action inany IBA means influencing a wide diversity of processes, from localgovernment environment to global conventions. Effective advocacy

Box 6. Long-line fishing, IBAs and the Global Seabird Programme.

Many significant seabird breeding sites are protected IBAs, such asthose detailed in the chapters on the French Southern Territories andthe St Helena group of islands in this book, but this protection on landdoes not address the threats faced at sea by pelagic seabirds such asthe magnificent albatrosses. Populations of many albatrosses andpetrels face extinction because these birds are drowned after takingbaited hooks on long-lines set by the fishing industry worldwide. Inseeking to resolve the threat, BirdLife’s Global Seabird Programme isworking with many other organizations and governments to resolveways in which this bycatch of seabirds can be eradicated. Importantly,this includes fulfillment of the obligation by national governments(under an FAO Agreement) to implement National Plans of Action toreduce incidental mortality of seabirds on long-lines.

Box 7. Global Environment Facility

The Operational Strategy of the Global Environment Facility (GEF)recognizes IBAs as one of several sources of information forestablishing the global importance of protected areas. Under Article8a of the Convention on Biological Diversity, contracting partiesare called upon to ‘Establish a system of protected areas or areaswhere special measures need to be taken to conserve biologicaldiversity’. In some cases, GEF finance for projects managed byBirdLife Partners in Africa has already focused on IBAs. The AfricanNGO – Government Partnerships for Sustainable Biodiversity ActionProject is the main example (see Box 5 in ‘Introduction’ chapter),directly supporting elements of the IBA process. Several NGO SmallGrants have also been awarded, however, including one to theWildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania (the BirdLife Partner inTanzania), to survey and produce inventories in the MountKilimanjaro National Park (IBA TZ003). Since early 1998,conservation work for the entire Seychelles Endemic Bird Area(including a number of Seychelles IBAs), has been supported by aMedium-Sized Grant to BirdLife Seychelles, called the Managementof Avian Ecosystems.

Box 8. Collaboration with Wetlands International

BirdLife International is collaborating on a Wetlands-International-ledproject to enhance conservation of the critical network of wetlandsrequired by migratory waterbirds along the African-Eurasian flyways.This GEF-funded project has the goal of substantially improving theconservation status of African-Eurasian migratory waterbirds, byenhancing and coordinating the measures taken by GEF-eligiblecountries to conserve the critical network of wetland areas that thesebirds require to complete their annual cycle. The project will be acatalyst for integrating best practices into conservation effortsthroughout the flyway, using existing coordinating mechanisms andcommitments, particularly those of the Ramsar Convention and theAfrican-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement, and a number ofnon-governmental organizations including BirdLife International. Sixwetland management projects, coordinated by BirdLife in Nigeria,South Africa, Tanzania, Hungary, Turkey and Yemen will provide ademonstration of best practice at national and regional levels. Theproject is also analysing gaps in knowledge of the critical wetlandareas required by migratory birds, using data from the InternationalWaterfowl Census of Wetlands International, Ramsar Sites and theBirdLife IBA Programme. Data from this publication will make asignificant contribution to this project.

Box 9. Participation and governance

BirdLife International has a governance structure that enables thesharing of views and agendas from local to global levels. Site SupportGroups enable communities that live in and nearby IBAs to participatein the IBA process, feeding concerns to national Partners, which inturn are represented on regional committees, such as the Council forthe African Partnership (see ‘Introduction’ chapter). Members of theregional committees sit on the Global Council, BirdLife’s highestdecision-making body. Through an elected hierarchy, therefore, localconcerns can gather to influence the whole Partnership. Consensus onthe nature of global IBA criteria is one example of how a soundgovernance structure has enabled BirdLife to share a process which isclearly global in scope, but stills manifests itself in local reality.

49


depends on understanding the concerns of all people with vestedinterests. These range from, for example, farmers living in andaround an IBA, through forest rangers, to ministerial land-useplanners and decision-makers shaping global environment policy.Stakeholder analysis can ensure that those advocating conservationfor IBAs gain access to the widest constituency of concerned people.The use of appropriate tools, such as Participatory Rural Appraisal,is essential, and this is exemplified in the institutional structure ofSSGs (Box 2), National Liaison Committees (Box 10), as well asthe national Partner organizations which form the foundation ofthe BirdLife International governance structure (Box 9).

■■■■■ Working nationally

RECOMMENDATION 10: Develop National IBAConservation Strategies for all countries, analyse gaps incoverage, review and amend the status of existing protectedareas and, where possible, designate unprotected IBAsunder relevant national and international laws.

A natural conclusion of identifying IBAs at country level has beenthe need, amongst other things, for a National Important Bird AreaConservation Strategy (NIBACS). NIBACS are defined as flexibleframework documents that contain goals, objectives, priorities andmechanisms for IBA conservation. Key elements include research,monitoring, planning, communications, advocacy, and capacitybuilding (at individual, institutional, and generic levels). Aprogramme for developing NIBACS in the 10 countriesimplementing the GEF project (see Box 5 in ‘Introduction’ chapter)is underway. A key component of any NIBACS is the NationalLiaison Committee (Box 10).

■■■■■ Working regionally

RECOMMENDATION 11: Integrate IBA- and other site-based conservation strategies into the full range ofenvironmental policy-making at a regional level, particularlyincluding regional political and financial institutions.

At a regional (pan-African) level, many potential advocacy targetsexist, including the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and someof its key structures, such as the African Ministerial Conference

for the Environment (AMCEN) and the African Development Bank(ADB). Sub-regional decision-making bodies such as the EconomicCommunity of West African States (ECOWAS) and the SouthernAfrican Development Community (SADC) are also influentialstructures. Moreover, many key decisions about Africa areinfluenced radically by strategy developed outside the continent,in Washington, Brussels, and Tokyo, for example. The capacity toadvocate IBA and other priorities to the World Bank, the EuropeanUnion, and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA),is vital (Box 11).

■■■■■ Working globally

RECOMMENDATION 12: Integrate IBA information into afull range of cross-cutting policy arenas at a global level.

BirdLife works with global institutions such as the United NationsEnvironment Programme (UNEP), the World Bank, the UnitedNations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food andAgriculture Organization (FAO) and, in the decade since the RioSummit meeting, increasingly with the so-called group ofmultilateral environmental agreements, notably the Convention onBiological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations FrameworkConvention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention onWetlands of International Importance (the Ramsar Convention),the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification(UNCCD), the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS: the BonnConvention), the Convention on International Trade in EndangeredSpecies (CITES), and the World Heritage Convention (seeAppendix 1).

As shown in the previous ‘Overview’ chapter, there is also muchinformation in this volume relevant to governmental recognitionof the international importance of IBAs through, for example,designation of sites under the Ramsar Convention, or identificationand management of sites under the African-Eurasian MigratoryWaterbird Agreement. IBA information and management can playa critical role in the delivery of a government’s national and globalresponsibilities under these international conventions, notablythose, such as the CBD, which have a strong protected-areacommitment (Box 12).

SETTING IBAs IN CONTEXT

A massive trade-off exists between conservation and developmentinitiatives to combat the desperate levels of poverty, inequality,and injustice throughout Africa. Wise management of scarce and

Box 10. National Liaison Committees

Most BirdLife Partners in Africa have now set up a National LiaisonCommittee (NLC) which provides a national forum at which theconcerns of the IBA programme can be aired with as many as possibleof the relevant national stakeholders. These include representativesfrom a wide range of relevant government and non-governmentinstitutions, as well as scientists and other NGOs. Developmentagencies and Site Support Groups are usually also represented. TheNLC usually takes lead responsibility in developing the NIBACS(Box 9). The NLCs also provide an excellent means of seeking toinfluence National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (Box 12).

Box 11. Africa Regional Policy and Advocacy Working Group

In common with many other institutions, BirdLife addresses policy andadvocacy work through networks of knowledge-holders. In Africa,BirdLife Partners are active nationally on a wide range of issues, suchas forest and forestry or tourism policy review. Many people withrelevant national experience also form part of wider BirdLife policy andadvocacy networks, acting, on behalf of their Africa colleagues, asRegional Focal Points (RFPs) for specific sectors (like wetlands), cross-cutting issues (such as environmental impact assessment), andinstitutions (e.g. the African Development Bank). RFPs also worktogether as an African Regional Policy and Advocacy Working Groupto coordinate sectoral and cross-cutting policy work, to identify andlead advocacy for specific regional institutions, and to implement astrategic policy and advocacy plan on behalf of the African Partners.The group is chaired by a senior member of the African Partnershipwho also sits on BirdLife’s Global Advocacy Working Group, whichhas overall responsibility for guiding the Partnership’s policy andadvocacy strategy.

Box 12. National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans

Article 6a of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) requestsparties to develop national strategies, plans or programmes for theconservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. NationalBiodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), as they havebecome known, have been supported in many African countries bythe Global Environment Facility’s Enabling Activities. Thus, mostAfrican countries have developed NBSAPs or are in the process ofdoing so. The information on IBAs presented in this book has a majorcontribution to make to the development and implementation ofNBSAPs. The first step is, of course, to make sure that this informationis reaching those responsible for developing and/or implementing theNBSAP. Furthermore, this information can be used in the NBSAPprocess in a variety of ways: IBAs should be an integral part of thenational protected-area system; they should be taken into account innational action plans for habitats and species; monitoring activities atIBAs could become a core activity for monitoring biological diversityat the national level; information on ecosystems and species withinIBAs should be used in environmental impact assessments. Many IBAsare ideal places for education and public-awareness activities.Similarly, information on IBAs could help parties to the CBD to fulfiltheir reporting requirements for the Convention. Parties are requestedto report on their measures for implementing the CBD in a four-yearcycle. National environmental organizations should seek to ensureinput into NBSAPs, as these bridge the gap between national andglobal advocacy.

50


dwindling resources is imperative. This directory is an endeavourto support decision-makers at all levels with the most up-to-dateinformation on the priority areas for conserving birds and theirhabitats, and therefore all the biodiversity that these sites contain.It is hoped that it will aid decision-making processes, provide insightinto management issues and help create development andconservation practices and links that are empowering, efficient,equitable, practicable and sustainable for the future.

Today’s challenge is to make sure that these practices and linksexist and also to develop, as quickly as possible, a constituency ofpeople at all levels to make sure that action is taken in situ. Theagenda is rooted in biodiversity conservation, but the challenge isinvariably human welfare and conflict resolution, using a full rangeof tools from protected-area to community-based management.Like species, sites are unique, and the nature of the problems theyface are local and complex, demanding local and often complexsolutions. People at all levels can ensure that the problems are betterunderstood and the solutions more appropriate.

Many sites of significance for biodiversity, including those inthis book, may be the targets of a number of global players, fromthe CBD to the World Heritage Convention, and the challenge toboth the development and conservation communities is to adoptpolicies and approaches that mean better collaboration, whichguarantee that efforts converge at local level.

SUMMARY OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Survey thoroughly the less well known IBAs and identify andsurvey, as necessary, potential additional sites.

2. Establish monitoring programmes for all IBAs, involvingrelevant local stakeholders wherever possible, and develop andshare effective monitoring protocols.

3. Ensure that IBAs are adequately incorporated in all local,national, regional and global planning, both within and outsidethe BirdLife Partnership.

4. Plan and carry out adequate management action at all IBAs,and for those sites known to face immediate threats,develop and undertake appropriately scaled interventionsurgently.

5. Integrate appropriate IBA information into teaching materialsand into the curricula of teacher-training institutions.

6. Maximize the use of information on IBAs in a wide range ofpublic fora, including specific campaigns to promote theconservation of species, sites and habitats.

7. Ensure IBA information is available to all decision-makers andplanners, particularly in those government departments andagencies responsible for the environment.

8. Establish and develop collaborations with and between as manyother conservation and development stakeholders as necessaryto pursue IBA conservation.

9. Build democratic structures through which people can pursuelocal, national, regional and global action for IBAconservation.

10. Develop National IBA Conservation Strategies for all countries,analyse gaps in coverage, review and amend the status of existingprotected areas, and where possible, designate unprotected IBAsunder relevant national and international laws.

11. Integrate IBA and other site-based conservation strategies intothe full range of environmental policy-making at a regional level,particularly including regional political and financialinstitutions.

12. Integrate IBA information into a full range of cross-cuttingpolicy arenas at a global level.

Box 13. Implementing the recommendations

This book essentially provides a ‘road map’ for delivering theconservation of Important Bird Areas in Africa. It tells us which sites toconserve, discusses site-specific issues and threats and highlightsexisting mitigation measures. The IBA programme in Africa provides asystem for using the ‘map’. The initial key steps of the programme—identification, surveying and documentation of IBAs—are alreadyclearly defined and operational in Africa, both within and outside theBirdLife Partnership. There is a need to standardize further thesubsequent stages of the IBA process in Africa, i.e. advocacy andmonitoring. The BirdLife Partnership in Africa has already madesignificant advances in this direction (for example, the appointment ofRegional Focal Points, and the development of sub-regionalmonitoring protocols). A huge challenge in the coming years will beto complete and use this standardized approach in the follow-upstages of the IBA programme and, where possible, extend to countriescurrently outside the BirdLife Partnership.

Documents

IMPORTANT BIRD AREA COVERAGE BY COUNTRYdatazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/IBAs/AfricaCntryPD... · 2016-10-31 · an area smaller than this overall mean, which is skewed by a relatively