The Important Bird Area Program (IBA) recognizes that habitat loss and fragmentation are the most serious threats facing populations of birds across America and around the world. By working through partnerships to identify those places that are critical to birds during some part of their life cycle (breeding, wintering, feeding, migrating) Audubon Vermont hopes to minimize the effects that habitat loss, and degradation have on bird populations. Unless we can slow the rapid destruction and degradation of habitat, populations of many birds may decline to dangerously low levels.

An Important Bird Area is a site that is part of a global network of places recognized for their outstanding value to bird conservation. The goal of the program is to focus conservation efforts where they will have the greatest impact. An IBA can be large or small, public or private, and must meet one of several objective criteria. Since the IBA program is voluntary, there are no legal or regulatory restrictions. The IBA program is overseen by BirdLife International, with Audubon as the partner in North America, and has become a key component of many bird conservation efforts, including, Partners in Flight, North American Waterbird Conservation Plan, and the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan. By creating a sense of ownership between IBAs and chapters, NGO's, and the birding community, Audubon looks to make the Vermont IBA Program a key component of avian conservation in the state. To this end Audubon is actively integrating the Vermont IBA Program with the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI). Vermont currently has 24 publicly recognized IBAs.

Last Updated 12 June 2007