3 Information about Key Biodiversity Areas

3.1 Overview

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. They are identified through national processes by local stakeholders using a set of globally agreed scientific criteria.

See Table 7 for the number of KBAs in this country.

KBAs are useful for setting national priorities for establishing or expanding protected areas and ‘other effective area-based conservation measures’ (such as community-managed areas), for identifying priorities for conservation interventions, and for informing the implementation of site-safeguard policies. The typically bottom-up process by which they are identified recognises that most conservation action takes place at the local and national level.

The data presented below are drawn from the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas, which is managed by BirdLife International on behalf of the KBA Partnership.

As with all datasets there is important information about its origin and character that should inform its appropriate use. Please see Appendix 1 for important information about these data.

*BirdLife International is a Global Partnership of more than a 100 national independent conservation NGOs – BirdLife Partners – that work together in a collaborative, coordinated fashion.

Table 7. Number of KBAs

Note: The total number of KBAs does not always equate to the sum of columns (Terrestrial, marine, Freshwater and Mountain). This is because some areas are identified as a KBA under more than one classification (for example: a coastal site may also be classified under both terrestrial and marine biomes). Sites that cover more than one biome are not counted twice in the total number.

Note that some KBAs qualify as both IBAs and AZEs. For further information please see the sources below:

• Summary information about KBAs: https://www.keybiodiversityareas.org
• Detailed factsheets about Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas: https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/search
• Information for Alliance for Zero Extinction Sites: https://www.zeroextinction.org/

3.2 Protected Area coverage of Key Biodiversity Areas

The graphs in Figure 5, Figure 6 and Table 8 display the degree to which KBAs are covered by Protected Areas and Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs). These data are presented to illustrate the status and gaps in protection of important sites for biodiversity, and to inform prioritization of the establishment or expansion of Protected Areas, OECMs or other biodiversity management approaches.

Figure 5. Protected Area and OECM coverage of all KBAs (N=36), IBAs (N=13) and AZEs (N=10). Complete (> 98% coverage) = dark green, Partial = bright green, None (< 2%) = light green, Not assessed = grey.

The table and graph below show trends in the mean percentage of each KBA that is covered by Protected Areas and OECMs, based on data on the date of establishment of Protected Areas and OECMs in the World Database on Protected and Conserved Areas, and spatial overlaps between digital polygons for Protected Areas, OECMs and KBAs. For full details, see https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-15-01-02.pdf, https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-15-04-01.pdf, and https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-14-05-01.pdf

Figure 6. Trends in coverage of all KBAs by Protected Areas and OECMs. Grey shading shows 95% confidence intervals where relevant.

Table 8. Mean percentage coverage of KBAs by Protected Areas and OECMs.

3.4 Monitoring the conservation status of IBAs

At present, information on the conservation status of KBAs derived from systematic monitoring is available only for the subset of KBAs that are IBAs.

The pressures on IBAs (threats), their state (condition) and the responses in place (conservation actions) are each scored on a 4-point scale using a standardised monitoring protocol (https://datazone.birdlife.org/info/ibamonitoring) by BirdLife Partners, to provide a simple assessment of the conservation status of each site. Where available, data from the most recent assessments are summarised below. These indicators should facilitate assessment of the effectiveness of measures taken to address biodiversity loss.

Figure 7a. Pressure on IBAs: percentage of sites assessed in the country with different levels of threats to populations of the species for which each site qualifies as an IBA (n=6)

This chart is not currently available for this country

Figure 7b. State of IBAs: percentage of sites assessed in the country with different scores for the condition of populations of the species for which each site qualifies as an IBA (n=6)

This chart is not currently available for this country

Figure 7c. Responses for IBAs - percentage of sites assessed in the country with different scores for the adequacy of conservation actions to benefit populations of the species for which each site qualifies as an IBA (n=6)

This chart is not currently available for this country

* The 'Pressure - State - Response' framework has been recognised by the CBD Decision VII/8 as a guidance to assess national level implementation.

Want to learn more?

• Visit the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas^TM to find out more about KBAs: https://www.keybiodiversityareas.org
• Visit the BirdLife Data Zone to find out more about IBAs and monitoring of IBAs: https://datazone.birdlife.org/home
• Visit the Alliance for Zero Extinction to find out more about AZEs: https://www.zeroextinction.org