This directory provides a concise summary of the 2345 Important Bird Areas described to date in the Americas. The inventory represents a participative consensus on the most important sites for bird and biodiversity conservation in the hemisphere, in what is probably the most comprehensive assessment of its kind to be published. Since the beginning of the IBA program in North America in 1995, sites have now been identified in all 57 countries or territories in the region, totaling more than 3,250,000 km2.
This book is the culmination of national IBA identification processes involving thousands of people in the Caribbean, North, Central and South America, and at least 150 governmental and non-governmental organizations. The directory is at once a high level awareness-raising publication; a decision-making tool for national and hemispheric biodiversity management and planning; and a portfolio of funding opportunities for potential donors.
Dedication
Contents
Forewords
Acknowledgements
Summary
Introduction
Why Important Bird Areas?
The Americas
Saving biodiversity in the Americas
Methods
* IBA criteria
* When is an IBA identified?
* Defining the boundaries of an IBA
Overview
* Overview of IBAs in the Americas
* Focus on IBAs in the marine environment
* Focus on protection of the IBA network
* Focus on IBAs and threatened birds I
* Focus on IBAs and threatened birds II
* Focus on IBAs and Neotropical migrants I
* Focus on IBAs and Neotropical migrants II
* Focus on BAs and waterbird conservation
* Focus on IBAs and other biodiversity
* Focus on IBAs and global scale conservation priorities
* Focus on IBAs in the Amazon basin
* Focus on IBAs and Multilateral Environmental Agreements
* Focus on IBAs and CBD commitments
* Focus on IBAs and donor safeguard policies
* Focus on IBAs and private companies
* Focus on IBAs and local communities
* References - overview
Future steps
Inventory
Appendices