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What is a Key Biodiversity Area?
Key biodiversity areas are places of international importance for the
conservation of biodiversity at the global level. The concept of 'Key
Biodiversity Areas' (KBAs for short) has been developed by a coalition
of biodiversity conservation organisations including BirdLife
International, Conservation
International, and PlantLife
International to designate sites of global conservation importance
based on objective scientific criteria. In Turkey, the scientific task
involved in designating the KBAs has been carried out by Doğa
Derneği, with the support of the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds.
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KBAs are sites that are large enough or sufficiently interconnected
to support viable populations of the species for which they are
important. The KBA selection process uses four criteria based on
the presence of four categories of species for which site-scale
conservation is appropriate:
1) Globally threatened species;
2) Restricted-range species;
3) Congregations of species that concentrate in large numbers at
particular sites during some stage in their life cycle; and
4) Biome-restricted assemblages.
The first of these four criteria addresses vulnerability, while
the latter three cover different components of irreplaceability.
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Tuz Lake
Photo: Hakan Öge / ATLAS
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The first criterion applies to areas that hold important populations
of threatened species. Due to increasing levels of human pressures, the
majority of the threatened species that have been identified in need of
conservation are often located in few numbers of areas. An example of
such a species in Turkey is the Great bustard (Otis tarda), a species
that used to be found throughout most steppic and agricultural areas up
until 50 years ago. Now, its presence is limited to 20-30 sites in Turkey.
These few remaining sites are generally the last large patches of Anatolian
steppes and areas where traditional agricultural practices continue and
where hunting activities remain minimal. Using data on endangered species,
this KBA criterion identifies 'vulnerable' landscapes of a given country
or another geographic unit.
Independent of current or potential human pressures, some natural and/or
semi-natural areas contain unique characteristics which distinguish them
from their immediate surroundings and stand out for their often particularly
well defined natural boundaries. The epitome of such an area in Turkey
is the Tuz Lake Basin in Central Anatolia, the biogeographic remnant of
an ancient inner sea. The Tuz Lake Basin supports some of the most extensive
Anatolian steppes and is characterised as the exclusive habitat for some
unique salt tolerant plants and other species. During specific times of
a given year, the lake and its neighbouring ecosystems host significant
numbers of the world populations of greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus
ruber), cranes (Grus grus), and white-fronted geese (Anser
albifrons). The future of these species depends directly on the existence
of this complex landscape.
KBA criteria to determine irreplaceable ecosystems such as the Tuz Lake
comprise the latter three criteria: Restricted range species, Congregatory
species and Biome-restricted assemblages.
For more than 20 years KBA criteria have been used all over the world
to determine the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and now are being applied
to other taxonomic groups such as plants. Thus, the KBA concept now appeals
to a much larger and holistic conservation challlenges.
Recently, a global initiative named "The
Alliance for Zero Extinction" (AZE) (translated as Sıfır Yok
Oluş in Turkish) has been launched to identify and protect the last remaining
habitats for the world's most threatened species, acting as a front line
defense against species extinctions. AZE sites host one or more terrestrial
species that do not occur elsewhere on earth and are classified as Critically
Endangered (CR) or Endangered (EN) categories defined by IUCN.
In short, AZE sites meet the two main considerations for selecting KBAs,
vulnerability and irreplaceability, at the same time for a single species.
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