BIRDLIFE Jamaica recently launched a major initiative to identify and protect sites critical for the conservation of Jamaica’s birds.

The initiative, known as the Important Bird Areas (IBA) programme is part of a global initiative to protect a worldwide network of sites and habitats in an attempt to curtail ever worsening global trends in species extinction.

A staggering 12 per cent (or one in eight) of the world’s birds are currently threatened, with many others expected to follow suit in the near future. The majority of these species live in tropical countries such as Jamaica.

The launch of the programme, which formed part of a two-day workshop held at the Medallion Hall to outline the IBA process, brought together most of the major players involved in the conservation of the Jamaican environment. These included the Jamaica Forestry Department, the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ), the National Environment & Planning Agency (NEPA), the Institute of Jamaica, and the Scientific Research Council.

Jamaica’s IBA programme is funded by the EFJ (using funds from the Debt for Nature Swap) and the US-based National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with additional support from the University of the West Indies and BirdLife International.

Catherine Levy, president of BirdLife Jamaica, said the event was the start of an unprecedented effort to save unique Jamaican sites and species in a spirit of true collaboration between the leading organisations of Jamaica’s environmental community.

Jamaica will be the first island in the Caribbean to initiate the IBA programme, which is expected to spread within the next five years to include all the major islands of region. The islands of the Caribbean are now considered one of the most important areas for global biodiversity conservation action.

Collectively the Caribbean islands contain approximately 7,000 plant and 800 vertebrate species that occur nowhere else on the earth. For this reason the Caribbean has been described as a global biodiversity hotspot.