Antarctic Important Bird Areas

A co-operative study is underway between the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) Group of Experts on Antarctic Seabirds and BirdLife International to compile an Inventory of Important Bird Areas for the Antarctic Continent. Coverage includes the South Orkney and South Shetland Islands and a number of other small offshore islands such as the Ballenys. Excluded, however, are sub-Antarctic islands as these are already covered by other regional IBA programmes.

An initial joint SCAR-BirdLife International workshop was held in Jena, Germany in June 2002, hosted by Dr Hans-Ulrich Peter of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität. Attended by some 15 people of seven nationalities, the workshop drew upon compilations of the breeding distributions of Antarctic seabirds produced by the SCAR Group of Experts over the last decade. Some 140-150 sites were provisionally identified. Detailed data are available for the five species of penguins that breed on the Continent and Peninsula: Emperor, Aptenodytes forsteri, Adélie Pygoscelis adeliae, Gentoo P. papua, Chinstrap P. antarctica and Macaroni Eudyptes chrysolophus. Population data on Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus, Snow Petrels Pagodroma nivea and Antarctic Petrels Thalassoica antarctica are also being used to assess localities against the IBA criteria. Some 20 species of birds breed in the area covered and sufficient quantitative data exist for 17 of these to permit the application of IBA categories A4i and ii.

The aspiration is to produce a book of 300-400 pages for the IBAs of the Antarctic Continent and to have the text drafted in time for the Group of Expert's next meeting in 2004, planned to take place on the island of Texel, in The Netherlands. Given the relatively few species involved, it was proposed that short species accounts be included as well as illustrations/photographs of each. It was felt that such a volume would be attractive to tourists, as well as representing a major advance for conservation efforts in the Antarctic.