The
IMBD 2002 Theme
A Celebration of Special
Places
International
Migratory Bird Day (IMBD), held annually on the second
Saturday in May, is an invitation to celebrate and support
migratory bird conservation.
IMBD
Information
Protecting
Habitat
Birds
live in places all around us. They are found in our
cities and on our farms, in schoolyards and backyards,
parks and roadsides, forests, beaches and fields. They
live wherever they can find habitat, an area that provides
for their basic needs for food, water, cover, and space.
Providing
or protecting habitat is one of the most important things
people can do to benefit birds. Anyone can help. Homeowners
can make a place for birds in their yards and gardens,
and communities can work to provide natural areas in
their neighborhoods, office complexes, and schoolyards.
Lands
used for agriculture, grazing, forestry or recreation
can also be managed as bird habitat, as can waters used
for fishing or other industries. With the right plans
and practices, the needs of both people and birds can
often be met in the same areas.
Public
and private landholders can also set aside areas purely
for the needs of wildlife. Wildlife management areas,
parks, refuges, sanctuaries, and private preserves have
been established to provide protections for particular
species and to maintain places free from human disturbance
and development.
Special
Recognition
Some
places are especially important to protect because of
the type, number, or variety of birds that use them.
For example, habitats critical to rare or threatened
species must be preserved if these species are to be
preserved. An important place for birds might also be
one that has a significant role in conser-vation awareness,
education, or research.
These
special places for birds deserve recognition, and programs
have been designed to identify, designate, and safeguard
them. The Important Bird Areas program, the Ramsar treaty,
the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, and
local habitat certification programs are examples. Each
of these recognition programs is non-regulatory, relying
on the voluntary support of interested stakeholders,
public and private land owners, local citizens, communities,
organizations, and agen-cies. The site designations
or certifica-tions provided by these programs not only
help set priorities, but stimulate additional advocacy
and stewardship for these special places.
Some
Special Places for Birds
Important
Bird Areas Important Bird Area (IBA) programs are aimed
at identifying, monitoring and protecting a network
of critical sites for the world’s birds. In brief,
IBAs are areas that support threatened and endangered
species; species that are vulnerable because they are
found only in limited areas or because they require
one particular type of habitat; or very large congregations
of birds. Hierarchial criteria determine a site’s
importance at a global, continental, national, and local
(state, provincial, or regional) level.
The
IBA program was initiated by BirdLife International
in Europe in the 1980s, and with the cooperation of
in-country partners, has expanded to Africa, Asia, the
Middle East, and the Americas. Programs exist in the
Bahamas, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela, and several other
Latin American countries. BirdLife International’s
list of IBA programs in the Americas can be accessed
at
www.birdlife.net/sites/index.cfm.
The
IBA program in Canada is jointly coordinated by Bird
Studies Canada and the Canadian Nature Federation. The
nearly 600 IBAs in Canada are described at www.ibacanada.ca.
In
the U.S., the IBA program is rapidly expanding. The
American Bird Conservancy has a nationwide program for
IBAs of national or greater significance, with a focus
on those of global significance. See
www.abcbirds.org/iba/aboutiba.htm. The National
Audubon Society has established State IBA programs (40
to date) and has taken on the responsibility of assessing
every globally-, continentally-, and nationally-ranked
IBA in the U.S. Visit
www.audubon.org/bird/iba/ for details.
In
Mexico, 230 IBAs have been identified in the program
coordinated by Consejo Internacional para la Preservacion
de las Aves (CIPAMEX). For information, visit www.iztacala.unam.mx/cipamex/
aicas.html.
Ramsar
Sites
Ramsar
is the short term for the “Convention on Wetlands
of International Importance especially as Waterfowl
Habitat.” Named after the town in Iran where it
was signed in 1971, this intergovernmental treaty was
developed to stem the loss of wetlands and ensure their
conservation world-wide. Under the treaty, wetlands
include all aquatic habitats from shallow marine systems
to inland waterways. Sites are designated as Wetlands
of International Importance based on criteria for uniqueness,
value for rare or endangered plants and animals, large
numbers of waterbirds, or importance for fish.
Most
Ramsar sites meet the criteria for numbers of waterbirds,
a term which includes loons, grebes, herons, bitterns,
storks, swans, geese, ducks, shorebirds, terns, gulls
and other aquatic species. To qualify, the site must
host 20,000 or more birds, or one percent of the population
of a species. There are now about 1,030 Ramsar sites
identified in the 122-plus participating nations, with
new sites added regularly.
Visit
http://www.ramsar.org for more information on Ramsar.
Western
Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network
The
Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN)
was created to protect critically important areas for
shorebirds of the Western Hemisphere. Shorebirds include
plovers, oystercatchers, avocets, stilts and sandpipers,
and inhabit open areas of grasslands, wetlands, and
tundra, as well as beaches. Migratory shorebirds tend
to concentrate in great numbers in their breeding and
migrating and wintering habitats, and disturbances at
these areas could have devastating effects on entire
populations. WHSRN sites are those which host a minimum
of 20,000 shorebirds a year (some host 500,000 or more).
Launched
in 1986, WHSRN is administered by the Manomet Center
for Conservation Sciences and includes 200- plus partner
organizations. The network of sites now includes 20
million acres of habitat.
For
more information on the WHSRN program, including a list
of sites, visit http://www.manomet.org/WHSRN.htm.
Certified
Habitats
Some
places are most important at the local level. A site
can have a tremendous effect on public interest, education,
and support, even if it cannot be said to provide habitat
critical to the survival of a species. A variety of
conservation organizations offer certification to homeowners,
schools, corporations, and communities who provide habitat
on their own properties.
To
earn certification, participants describe how they will
provide for the basic needs of wildlife — food,
water, shelter, and space — in the area under their
care. Certifying organizations provide participants
with needed guidance as well as validation of their
efforts. By encouraging citizens and private entities
to commit to sharing space with birds and other wildlife,
habitat certification programs promote a public conservation
ethic that is vital to all conservation programs.
The
Backyard, Schoolyard, and Community Habitats programs
of the National Wildlife Federation and the Canadian
Wildlife Federation are described at http://www.nwf.org
and http://www.cwf-fcf.org, respectively.
The
Wildlife Habitat Council’s certification programs
for corporations and other large land owners are described
at http://www.whc.org.
For
information on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s
Schoolyard Habitat Program, visit http://www.fws.gov/r5cbfo/
schoolyd.htm.
A
search of the World Wide Web using the keyword “habitat”
provides many links to additional information on protecting
habitat at home, at work, at school, and in the community.
Recognition
is Just the First Step
The
identification of an area as a special place for birds
is just the first step in its protection. The success
of any recognition program depends on the group of people
that the program brings together to champion the site.
Ideally, collaborations between agencies, private landowners,
biologists, schools, and communities are formed. These
groups support a site by making it the focus for management,
monitoring, education and outreach. Some Special Places
for Birds
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