Marine Important Bird Areas
 Fabio Olmos
A Tristan Albatross feeding with Spectacled Petrels
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Protecting biodiversity on the high seas
There is an urgent need for international cooperation and action to improve conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in marine areas, both in coastal areas and in areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have adopted a programme to establish a comprehensive, effectively managed and ecologically representative of marine protected areas by 2012.
Identifying Marine Important Bird Areas
The Important Bird Areas (IBAs) programme of BirdLife International seeks to identify, document and conserve sites that are critical for the long-term viability of bird populations. The programme began in the 1980s and the process of site inventory is very well advanced in the terrestrial environment, with more than 9000 sites already identified around the world. Conservation actions are underway at many of these sites, many now benefiting from enhanced protection status, formal and informal.
With the success of the IBA approach in the terrestrial and freshwater environment, BirdLife is now adapting and extending the programme to the oceans.
The identification of Marine IBAs will make a vital contribution to global initiatives to gain greater protection and sustainable management of the oceans, including valuable input to the identification of Marine Protected Areas.
Two parts of the BirdLife Partnership where the identification of marine IBAs is under most active development are Iberia (Portugal and Spain) and New Zealand.