Key Biodiversity Areas

Over the last three decades, various approaches to identifying sites of significance for biodiversity have been developed (see the resources page for more information). These approaches generally focus on one group of species or one biome, and use diverse assessment criteria, which has resulted in some confusion among decision-makers as well as duplication of efforts.

As a consequence, IUCN members requested IUCN to convene a worldwide consultative process to agree an overarching methodology to identify Key Biodiversity Areas.

Global consultation

The WCPA-SSC Joint Task Force on Biodiversity and Protected Area is leading this global consultation and has identified and mobilised key experts and organizations, including IUCN Commissions and members, academics, practitioners, resources managers, conservation organisations, national decision-makers, private and financial sectors to be involved in the process. 

This process includes:

• Stakeholders and end-users inteviews
• technical workshop
• regional consultation

2014 timeline for the KBA consultation process     

Draft KBA standard and methodology
Technical review of KBA methodology
Revisions following technical review
Second review and e-consultation
Present KBA standard and methodology at World Parks Congress, Sydney, Australia

Stakeholders and end-users' interviews

In addition to formal meetings, an end-user consultation process was conducted between 2012 and 2015. Selected end-user groups were interviewed, wherever possible in person or by phone/Skype, and case studies were developed to summarise end-user needs, types of products required, alignment with existing procedures, potential concerns, and implications for KBA development. A synthesis document summarising key implications for the KBA process has been produced, drawing from the case studies.

KBA stakeholders and end-users

• Intergovernmental treaties
• Intergovernmental agencies
• Intergovernmental coalitions
• Multi-lateral Development Banks
• Donors
• Multinational companies and industry associations
• International conservation and development NGOs
• Government: conservation agencies
• Industry/industry associations (including national certification bodies)
• Investors
• Cultural/spiritual institutions
• NGOs
• Climate change
• Ecosystem services
• Restoration
• Indigenous peoples

Technical workshops

Framing workshop

A major milestone of the consultation was the Framing workshop organised in Cambridge, UK, in June 2012: the participants agreed that the mission of this new standard is to identify sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity, for all levels of biodiversity (genetic, species, and ecosystem) and that is applicable in all regions to terrestrial, freshwater and marine realms. They also highlighted key questions for subsequent technical deliberation, on four high-level issues:

• Criteria and delineation
• Thresholds
• Governance mechanisms of the process
• Marine and freshwater issues

Criteria and Delineation Workshop

During this workshop (held in Front Royal, near Washington, USA, in March 2013), draft KBA criteria were developed and recommendations for KBA delineation were agreed upon, which will be the starting point for the development of delineation guidelines for KBAs.The workshop also adressed addditional topic such as documentation of sites or viability, as they emerged from the discussions. 

Governance workshop

The KBA Governance workshop (hosted by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment in Brasilia on 6-9 November 2013) discussed possible governance mechanisms of the new KBA standard, in particular the role of the different stakeholders and the relationships between national and global processes. Participants drafted a Terms of Reference for a new KBA Committee that would report to the chairs of WCPA and SSC. They also developed a process for nominating, reviewing and endorsing KBAs and procedures for incorporating additional data into existing KBAs. 

Following the Governance workshop held in Brasilia, a one-day meeting was organised in Cambridge, UK, on 21 Jan 2014, to address two issues that could not be resolved due to time constraints in Brasilia: the review and petition processes. 

Threshold workshop 

The KBA Thresholds workshop (organized by Sapienza University at the Fondazione BioParco in Rome, Italy, on 1-5 December 2013) proposed quantitative thresholds of biodiversity significance for the four criteria recommended at the Criteria and Delineation workshop, helping to determine how “key” a site needs to be for it to be considered a “Key Biodiversity Area and developed an additional criterion on sites identified through a comprehensive quantitative analysis of irreplaceability. Discussions were informed by a set of analyses presented by Moreno di Marco of Sapienza University that explored conditions under which sites identified through threshold approaches (specifically, Important Bird Areas) align to grid cells identified through comprehensively quantitative calculation of irreplaceability. The thresholds proposed at the workshop are currently being examined for their implications for existing KBAs and tendency to yield commission errors (identifying too many sites) or omission errors (missing really important places).

Regional consultation

In order to achieve a globally agreed standard, the IUCN has led a number of activities across the globe to build consensus, stakeholder buy-in and encourage collaborative work. 

Relevant stakeholders, within and beyond the conservation community, have participated actively in our events. Reports and lists of participants are available for all the regional workshops and can be found in the Appendices of the KBA Consultation Report 2012.

A map of the location of the global consultation workshops to date can be viewed on the KBA Global Map of Activities as well as Table 2 highlighting the date, location and number of participants involved in the global consultation process. 

 Table 2. Date, location and participants of the global consultation. 

Resources

For more information on Objective 2, contact Annabelle Cuttelod