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Establishing and Strengthening Protected Areas

The establishment of protected areas is one of the most important tools in nature conservation. Every ecosystem has a delicate balance of elements that can be easily upset through human intervention. Protected areas are often a refuge for rare and endangered plant and animal species and prevent unique areas of countryside from being developed or overexploited. That’s why it is important that the ecosystems we conserve are kept in their entirety, to make sure that intact and healthy habitats stay whole and undisturbed.

In accordance with international nature protection laws, parts of nature and the countryside can be declared as protected areas. The areas defined according to management categories of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are examples of internationally recognised and binding protected areas, for example, National Parks are category II in these categories.

NABU is active, particularly on an international level, to establish and manage large protected areas, such as national parks, UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and UNESCO World Natural Heritage Sites. In cooperation with BirdLife International, Important Bird Areas (IBA) are identified and put under legal protection.

What we do

Establishment of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves

Issyk-Kul

In Ethiopia in Africa, NABU is championing the establishment of a biosphere reserve. The magnificent forests, the birthplace of coffee, are in urgent need of protection and more work needs to be put into promoting the traditional usage systems in the coffee forest. To achieve these goals, we are supporting the establishment of Ethiopia’s first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and the world’s first-ever Coffee Biosphere Reserve, the so-called Kafa Coffee Biosphere Reserve.

In 1996, in cooperation with the Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), the 43,000 square kilometre large Issyk Kul Biosphere Reserve was established in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia.

Designation of UNESCO Natural World Heritage Sites
NABU supports the designation of UNESCO World Natural Heritage Sites so that nature that is of global significance can be protected on a large-scale.

NABU has been actively supporting the complex process of preparing and nominating World Natural Heritage Sites in the former Soviet Union since 1995 within the scope of a number of cooperation projects and we are able to look back to many successes. Just in Russia alone, in cooperation with the Russian government and non-governmental organisations, we have put forward seven nominations to UNESCO. Spectacular natural phenomena, such as the volcanoes of Kamchatka and unique landscapes of Western Caucasus are now officially part of our world natural heritage.

On the south coast of the Caspian Sea, between Azerbaijan and Iran, stretch pristine deciduous woodlands that are home to many highly endangered species, such as the leopard, the Persian ironwood and the Oriental beech. NABU is supporting the designation of a World Natural Heritage Site in cooperation with our partner organisations.

After working on the project for almost 10 years, NABU and its partner in Kazakhstan finally saw the steppe and lakes of Kazakhstan designated as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site in July 2008. The steppe lake Tengiz is one of the largest wetland areas in Central Asia and is a migratory stopover point and nesting place for over 300 different types of birds, like the Dalmatian pelican and the greater flamingo.

Supporting National Parks
In the Caucasus NABU is supporting the newly founded Hyrkan National Park by holding educational seminars and supplying equipment for the environmental education programme and the rangers. The Hyrkan National Park has a rich biodiversity and belongs to one of the few remaining areas in Azerbaijan that is still covered by forest.

Important Bird Areas
The worldwide Important Bird Areas (IBA) programme of BirdLife International aims to identify, monitor and protect areas that are significant in terms of bird conservation. NABU is currently supporting its BirdLife partners in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ethiopia to identify and protect IBA networks in their own countries.

Nature Reserves Crossing Borders
The border region between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan is rich in biodiversity, which is why NABU is promoting the creation of a cross-border nature reserve.

Contact:
PB Internationales
E-Mail: International@NABU.de

More informations about Important Bird Areas