Conserving biodiversity

Forest and Bird, Issue 265, 1 August 1992, Page 7

Conserving biodiversity

IN JUNE the International Council for Bird Preservation launched Putting Biodiversity on the Map: priority areas for global conservation. This publication is the first comprehensive attempt to identify the most significant areas for biodiversity on a global scale. The project mapped the distribution of all birds with restricted ranges (less than 50,000 square kilometres) — a quarter of all the bird species in the world. The results pinpoint 221 areas (termed Endemic Bird Areas or EBAs) that are home

to two or more endemic bird species each. These areas in total make up less than five percent of the earth’s surface, but by protecting them, the future of a quarter of the world’s birds would be secured. The value of the project has been to draw attention to areas of endemism previously little known, for example in Southern America and Asia, and to highlight those areas where there is no or little protection. The Pacific region, with its many small islands each with their own unique avifauna, has 30 EBAs in total. Source: International Council for Bird Preservation