Important Bird Area Coverage by Country.

A total of 187 Important Bird Areas have been proposed or confirmed among 18 of the Pacific Island Countries and Territories.  The area of land that this covers has not yet been assessed, as precise boundaries for many sites will depend on discussions with  stakeholders within many of the countries. 

Pacific_IBAs_all.jpg

The effective protection and management of this network of globally-important sites is a realistic long-term goal that will make a significant contribution to conserving many bird species and populations in the Pacific Islands, as well as many other elements of biodiversity at the ecosystem, taxon and genome level.

The following Table summarises the current situation regarding the selection of IBAs in each of the Pacific countries and territories.  Details for each country can be noted by clicking on the countries name in the Table.  Within each country chapter information is provided on

1                    Method used to identify potential IBA sites.

2                    A map showing the distribution of each of the sites, identified by Site Code.

3                    A table summarising the name and code of each site, the area that each site covers (0ha indicates that site boundaries have not yet been identified), the criteria that indicates why the site has been selected, Key threats identified about the site and the Protection Status of the site.  Clicking on the name of a site will then take you through to a more detailed sheet providing more information about that particular site.

4                    Where information is available a second map, indicating the distribution of potential Marine IBA sites around the site is presented.

5                    Next is a list of up-to-three Options indicating the Next Steps for the development of IBA conservation in the given country.  The ‘next steps’ uses this figure as the starting point for each of the suggested options.

6                    A table suggesting one way of prioritising the selection of IBA sites for conservation action within the country is presented.  This prioritisation is based on the number of Globally Threatened (ie CR, EN, VU and NT) species ranked by the extent of threat.  Significant populations of congregatory species are ranked between the number of VU and the number of NT species, while the number of Restricted Range species is used when all else is equal.  This prioritisation method favours terrestrial species over marine, of particular relevance in the Pacific, and so might be considered inappropriate, at least in some countries where congregations of breeding sea- and waterbirds comprise the main important group identifying IBAs.  This prioritisation approach also assumes that there has been no previous conservation action in the country.  If site A is already undergoing conservation action, then the next priority site may be the one with the highest number of trigger species NOT benefiting from action at site A. 

                                                         


 

Table 1.  The total number of proposed/confirmed Important Bird Areas by Country or Territory, and the total number of IBAs fulfilling each criterion, as of July 1, 2010. 

(For detailed country information click on name)

Countries

Number of IBAs

A1

A2

A4i

A4ii

A4iii

Fiji

20

15

13

3

5

3

French Polynesia

33

30

24

12

8

3

Guam

2

2

2

0

0

0

Kiribati

13

7

2

7

10

6

Marshall Islands

6

2

2

3

2

4

Micronesia, Federated States of

16

14

15

1

0

0

Nauru

2

2

2

0

0

0

New Caledonia

32

21

25

5

10

4

New Zealand

12

12

4

4

10

6

Niue

1

0

1

0

0

0

North Mariana Islands, Commonwealth

11

11

11

3

1

2

Palau

8

6

5

0

0

2

Pitcairn Islands

4

4

2

3

3

3

Samoa

6

6

6

0

0

0

Solomon Islands

6

6

6

0

0

0

Tonga

7

4

7

2

3

3

Tuvalu

0

0

0

0

0

0

Vanuatu

7

7

7

0

0

0

Wallis & Futuna

1

1

1

0

0

0

Grand Total

187

150

135

43

52

36

 

The number of IBAs identified per country/territory varies from 1 on Niue to 33 in French Polynesia.  IBAs have not yet been identified in a number of other countries/territories, including Cook Islands (a project has just started), Tuvalu (where a site has been identified but population estimates for the key seabirds are not yet available), American Samoa, Tokelau, Papua New Guinea and the US Minor Outlying Islands.  Seven of the countries/territories contain 10 or more IBAs, although this is likely to rise as further assessments are anticipated for the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Zealand.

IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS IN THE PACIFIC: A COMPENDIUM - Birdlife Pacific (2010)