Why apply IBA criteria?
 Cuneyt Oguztuzun
Sultansazligi, a brackish wetland IBA in Turkey
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The selection of Important Bird Areas (IBAs) is achieved through the application of quantitative ornithological criteria, grounded in up-to-date knowledge of the sizes and trends of bird populations. The criteria ensure that the sites selected as IBAs have true significance for the international conservation of bird populations, and provide a common currency that all IBAs adhere to, thus creating consistency among, and enabling comparability between, sites at national, continental and global levels.
It is crucial to understand why a site is important, and to do this it is necessary to examine its international significance in terms of the presence and abundance of species that occur there in different seasons. The status and nature of these species also need to be taken into account: threat status, breeding/non-breeding status, vulnerability through congregation, and the proportion of the total population of each species that occurs at a site, are all important factors in determining a site’s importance.
A main aim of the IBA Programme of BirdLife International is to attain protection for IBAs, and the provision of convincing bird data is an essential part of any argument for statutory protection. Importantly, the application of criteria to significant species, together with future data-gathering and the development of monitoring programmes, permit not only the assessment of changes in species’ numbers but also an examination of how these changes impact on the overall importance of the site, thus helping to guide the management and conservation of the area.
The more specific, quantitative and comprehensive is the information available on IBAs, with links showing the fulfilment of obligations laid out in various EC directives and international conventions, the stronger is the case for protection. To this end, the criteria build upon existing international legal instruments such as the EC Birds Directive which obliges the designation of Special Protection Areas in the European Community, and the Ramsar Convention under which contracting parties must designate at least one Ramsar Site.