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Science
Important Bird Areas (IBAs)
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| © Jeff Larsen |
The Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program
is a global effort spanning more than 100
countries and every continent. The program’s goal
is to identify those areas that are most important for maintaining
bird populations, and to focus stewardship efforts on protecting
these sites.
Together with BirdLife
International, Audubon is working with many partners in
the North
American Bird Conservation Initiative to identify those
places that are critical to birds during some part of their
life cycle – breeding, wintering, feeding, or migrating.
Worldwide, more than 10000 IBAs have been identified. In the
United States, more than 2100 IBAs have been identified, and
are complemented by IBAs identified across Canada, Mexico,
and much of Central and South America. Washington has 74 IBAs,
covering habitats as varied as the open waters of the Pacific
Ocean and the arid hills and canyons of the sagebrush ocean
in central Washington.
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| © Jeff Larsen |
Habitat loss and fragmentation are the
most serious threats facing birds across America and around
the world, so the goal of the IBA program is to minimize the
effects of such loss and fragmentation – in order, ultimately,
to save and restore bird species and numbers.
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