* Could help guide wind turbines, oil and gas exploration
* Important areas for birds cover 6.2 percent of oceans
OSLO Oct 16 (Reuters) – A new atlas of the world’s oceans
issued on Tuesday shows more than 3,000 sites important to
seabirds from albatrosses to penguins as part of a drive to
improve conservation.
The free online atlas (www.birdlife.org/datazone/marine)
could help governments plan, for instance, where to set up
wildlife protection areas at sea or where to permit offshore
wind turbines or oil and gas exploration, they said.
The atlas, showing areas vital to birds including pelicans,
sandpipers, cormorants and skuas, was compiled by BirdLife
International, drawing on work by 1,000 bird experts, government
ministries and secretariats of U.N. Conventions.
“Seabirds are now the most threatened group of birds. They
present unique conservation problems, since many species travel
thousands of kilometres across international waters,” BirdLife
International said in a statement.
It identifies more than 3,000 important bird areas (IBAs)
worldwide, such as breeding grounds and migration routes,
covering in total 6.2 percent of the world’s oceans.
“Our initial target is to encourage governments to use this
tool and use this data in their national planning,” Ben
Lascelles, BirdLife’s Global Marine IBA Coordinator, told
Reuters.
He said that Japan, for instance, had recently consulted
BirdLife about where to site offshore wind farms to avoid damage
to migratory birds. The atlas was unveiled at a U.N. conference
on biological diversity in Hyderabad, India.
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