Our planet is facing mass extinction and needs our help. We have partnered with other global conservation organisations to protect our most important places for nature. These places are called Key Biodiversity Areas.
Australia has identified over 334 Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) that provide critical habitat to our most threatened species, and are home to large breeding colonies or important staging sites for migratory species.
Some of the most important places for nature on our planet are in trouble and need our protection. To turn the tide, BirdLife International and twelve other global conservation organisations have joined forces and created the KBA partnership.
BirdLife Australia has taken the initiative to fill the partnership with life in Australia. Our focus is to identify these hotspots for nature according to the global standard (IUCN, 2016) and ensure they are well managed and protected for the wildlife that depends on them.
This means for the first time we have a common language to talk about the most important places left for life on Earth – the Key Biodiversity Areas.
Existing KBA Guardians can access the KBA health-check portal here submit their yearly online assessments.
BirdLife Australia has been able to help protect these important places with the support of hundreds of volunteers. Across the organisation we have created programs where staff and volunteers work together to improve the conservation status of birds in KBAs. This includes:
With over 100 years of conservation management, it is now more important than ever to help protect these key areas. This springs from the understanding that birds cannot survive in isolation from the rest of the environment.
By understanding nature’s hotspots, we can help safeguard our birds before it’s too late.
The KBA process ensures that conservation effort is directed to where it has its greatest impact. This has helped many Australian birds by:
As a result, we have achieved:
The strength of the KBA program is that it works at the local and national level.
Locally, we have created a network of over 100 KBA Guardians and Guardian groups nationwide that take local action through monitoring, advocacy and on-ground conservation work.
Nationally, we are changing the conversation. We have ensured that environmental strategies and recovery plans of NGOs industry and government refer to improving KBA habitats.
The community can get involved by volunteering as a KBA Guardian. Existing KBA Guardians can access the KBA health-check portal here submit their yearly online assessments.
For over 120 years, we’ve been at the forefront of bird conservation in Australia. Thanks to our supporters, and to the science which informs our actions, we’ve achieved some incredible outcomes for threatened birds – but now, we’re facing our greatest challenge yet: Australia’s extinction crisis.
To save birds, we need reliable data. Birdata is where we collect, keep and share this information. Compiled almost entirely by citizen scientists, Birdata is Australia's largest and longest running database for birds, with more than 22 million records (and counting).
