Internationally Important Bird Areas – IBA

Areas of importance for birds and biodiversity (IBAs) are:

• sites of international importance for the conservation of birds and biodiversity
• areas recognized worldwide as practical conservation tools
• various areas suitable for practical activities on the conservation of species and their habitats
• areas identified by using strict standardized criteria
• sites that are together part of a broader integral approach to the conservation and sustainable use of the natural environment

The organization that sets the criteria and maintains a central database of internationally important bird areas is BirdLife International https://www.birdlife.org/. BirdLife International is a global partnership of conservation-minded civil society organizations that strive to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity in the activities with people on sustainability in the use of natural resources. Certain IBA areas are also one of the criteria for establishing ecologically important areas and ecological corridors of Serbia's ecological network.

The first phase of the IBA program in Serbia was implemented in the late 1980s and at that time a total of 57 IBA areas were identified within the SFRY borders, which covered an area of 180.300 ha representing about 1.4% of the territory of the former state. Of these, 16 IBA areas were located in Serbia. The second nomination and revision of the IBA concept was realized in the 1990s, when the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia officially assumed coordination. During that period, 35 out of 57 proposed areas met the criteria. In the third phase of the IBA program in 2009, 43 areas in Serbia met the criteria and their total area was 1 263.662 ha or 14.29% of the territory of Serbia http://datazone.birdlife.org/country/serbia/ibas.