Important Bird Areas (IBAs) are exactly what their name implies: places or habitats that are essential for bird populations. A global initiative of BirdLife International, implemented by ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ and local partners in the United States, IBA is an effort to identify and conserve areas that are vital to breeding, migrating, and wintering birds. Because habitat loss is the most serious threat facing bird species across North America and around the world, ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ’s IBA program is a site-based initiative to address habitat loss through community-supported conservation.
To date, ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ has identified 2,758 IBAs (more than 150 of them from Alaska) covering 417 million acres of public and private lands in the United States. Due to the vast, intact habitats in Alaska, there are more globally significant IBAs in this state than in any other.
They include Teshekpuk Lake/Dease Inlet in the Western Arctic, Bristol Bay (a collection of 27 IBAs that hosts the world’s greatest concentration of seabirds), the globally significant Izembek-Moffet-Kinzarof Lagoons, Safety Sound near Nome, and Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve—home to the largest gathering of Bald Eagles in the world.
Vice President, ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Alaska
Communications Manager, ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Alaska
Director of Conservation
Inside the fight for the watershed with the Chilkat Indian Village of Klukwan, residents in Haines, and ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Alaska.
A Nevada-based mining company could impact the Safety Sound Important Bird Area near Nome, a place vital to birds and wildlife, Alaska Native subsistence users, and tourism.
The Department of the Interior released a draft Environmental Impact Statement recommending a multi-part land swap, spelling trouble for Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and public lands across Alaska.
