Global Recognition for Bodega Bay

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Global Recognition for Bodega Bay

Bodega Bay has been designated as a birding site of global importance by the United States Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program. Madrone Audubon congratulates the resident, migratory, and breeding birds of Bodega Bay, along with Madrone Audubon's Ken Wilson and Becky Olsen who prepared the application for IBA status.

The IBA designation is based on rigorously-applied scientific criteria, and should help ensure the protection of Bodega Bay bird habitat.

The IBA concept originated in Europe in the 1980's, when students of bird population found that an important series of habitat studies was not receiving the attention it deserved. This spurred BirdLife International and other conservation groups into a campaign that would identify and preserve the continent's most crucial bird areas. Four hundred experts from all European countries helped to collect and evaluate data on 2,444 sites, representing each of 41 countries in Europe. The results were published in 1989, as Important Bird Areas in Europe. At that time, only a quarter of the sites were protected, but with the impetus provided by the IBA program, by 1995 the number of protected sites had doubled.

The success of the European program has spawned IBA projects throughout the world. Important Bird Areas in the Middle East was published in 1994, and programs have been initiated in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The North American program is supported in part by funding from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

At present, about 1,200 sites in the United States have been identified as IBAs. In California, Bodega Bay is one of just 58 sites to gain "globally important" status, as opposed to others whose importance is continental, national, or state-wide.

The California component of the program is sponsored by the American Bird Conservancy, California Audubon, and California Partners in Flight.