The Important Bird Areas (IBA) program is an international non-governmental conservation scheme lead by BirdLife International Partners such as Birds Australia.

Important Bird Areas (IBAs) are sites of international importance for bird conservation. IBAs are small enough to be practical targets for conservation management but large enough to meet the global IBA criteria.

The Australian IBA program will help protect a network of sites critical for the conservation of Australia¹s birds by:
• promoting IBAs as a tool for biodiversity conservation planning
• encouraging government to prioritise conservation at IBAs (e.g. in grant-giving schemes)
•    encouraging and facilitating local community-based groups and land-owners to manage land sustainably and conserve key bird species

The IBA process:
1.    Identification - any site which meets the global IBA criteria will be identified as an IBA. Published data will be analysed and local experts, land-owners and other local stakeholders will be consulted.
2.    Monitoring - basic data on the key birds and habitats will be collected annually where practicable.
3.    Conservation - the project will help any local group or land-owner with advice, contacts and possibly fund-raising and lobbying, to conserve their IBA.

The IBA process has proved very successful across the world with over 9,800 sites in over 170 countries identified as Important Bird Areas by the end of 2005. For more details on the global context of the IBA process, see Birdlife International.

IBA Fact-sheets and Newsletters

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IBA Fact Sheet (308Kb)

IBA Fact Sheet for Private Land Owners (332Kb)

IBA Fact Sheet for Publicly-owned Land (304Kb)

IBA Fact Sheet for NRM and CMA Groups (336Kb)

IBA Newsletter March 2007 (480Kb)

Pied Heron © Guy Dutson

Chestnut-quilled Rock- Pigeon © Guy Dutson

Red Goshawk (Vulnerable) © Guy Dutson