Thank you to everyone who joined us for our webinar last week. If you weren’t able to attend, you can watch the recording here: How Key Biodiversity Areas can guide conservation in Canada. As we plan additional webinars for our fall series, we would love to hear what topics you are most interested in. Please take two minutes to fill out our quick survey on potential topics to cover. We will announce the next webinar shortly.
Additional updates:
The Global KBA Partnership has launched a new website, including an interactive dashboard for the open-access World Database of KBAs. Most of the KBAs in Canada included in this database are legacy Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs), which are currently being re-assessed under the KBA Standard for all taxa, including birds. We will be adding new KBAs in Canada to this global database in the coming year, as well as updating the sites already identified for birds. Read more about the new website here.
Key Biodiversity Areas were featured at the UN General Assembly Nature for Life Hub on September 28th, 2020 as part of the session highlighting the importance of biodiversity data for mapping and guiding conservation actions. A two-minute video summarizing why KBAs are important for global mapping and spatial planning was presented – it’s worth checking out and it mentions Canada’s leadership role on KBAs.
Reading:
Sites meeting KBA criteria aren’t automatically protected nor do they require any specific management actions. Instead, KBAs provide a detailed layer of information to highlight important places for biodiversity, which can be applied to a suite of management decisions and conservation approaches. Learn more about the uses of KBAs in “Applications of Key Biodiversity Areas: End-user consultations”
As always, please get in touch if you have questions or if you want to learn more.
Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne
Canada Key Biodiversity Areas Coordinator / Coordonnatrice Zones Clés pour la Biodiversité
