Spanish Environment Minister thanks LIFE project

On 26th October 2009, the Spanish Environment Minister, Elena Espinosa, praised the valuable contribution of a Spanish LIFE project to the long-term protection of seabirds. Speaking at its presentation, the Minister hailed the final inventory of the project Important Bird Areas for Seabirds (Marine Ibas) in Spain (LIFE04 NAT/ES/000049) as "an essential tool" for developing targeted conservation policies.

The project, led by SEO/BirdLife - the Spanish Ornithology Society - produced the first complete national inventory of Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in the marine environment anywhere in the world. It identified 42 areas of conservation importance for seabirds, dotted around Spanish waters, covering more than 40 000 km² or 5% of its area. It complemented existing data on land-based IBAs to provide a total picture of the network of IBAs for seabirds.

The project demonstrated that it is possible to identify IBAs in the marine environment and also some of the birds' principal threats, including fishing equipment, pollution and wind turbines. It is already being used as an example for other countries looking to carry out a similar process for seabirds, from Greece to France, and could be adapted for other marine animals.