Endemic Bird Area

As an Endemic Bird Area (EBA, German: area of endemic birds ) denotes the Birds BirdLife International worth protecting habitats of bird species that occur only in a limited area of a maximum of 50,000 km ², so have a restricted distribution.

Background

In such EBAs at least two endemic bird species occur. In Biodiversity Project of BirdLife International in 1987 218 EBAs were set around the world. In addition, we defined regions with only one species with limited distribution as secondary Endemic Bird Area.

In the EBA's world, 93% of bird species with restricted ranges. Half of all these species is endangered, or Near Threatened, while the other half is under threat due to the small size of their habitats by the possible loss or reduction. In addition to the bird species are the EBA's also to protect other animal and plant species of importance. Although they cover only 5 % of the world surface, but are home to a large biological richness that make them important for the preservation of the ecosystem.

In most EBAs are forests, especially tropical lowland forests and cloud forests in the highlands, often on islands and mountain ranges. Approximately 77 % are located in the tropics and subtropics. The sizes vary from a few square kilometers and more than 100,000 km ².