Directory of Important Bird Areas in the Kingdom of Thailand

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This directory is a contribution to conservation planning in Thailand for the 21st century. Its publication comes at a time when the government of Thailand has recently ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), reaffirming its commitments to sustainable development and the conservation of biodiversity. In support of these commitments, the directory uses birds as indicators to identify a set of internationally important sites for biodiversity conservation, termed Important Bird Areas (IBA's). IBA's are not only important for birds, but typically support a wide range of other important animal and plant species. Furthermore, many IBA's are also significant for human welfare and economic well being through protecting catchments, providing flood control or as a source of natural resources.
The directory of IBA's in Thailand has been prepared by the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand, the BirdLife International Partner in Thailand, and BirdLife International.
This directory presents a total of 62 IBA's that were selected in Thailand, covering 9% of the total land area of the country. IBA's were selected in 54 of Thailand's 76 provinces. Of the 22 provinces in which IBA's have not been selected to date, 16 are located in central and north-eastern Thailand, the 2 regions where natural habitats have been most extensively converted to other land uses.
The aim of the directory is to promote the conservation of a set of internationally important sites for the conservation of birds and biodiversity in Thailand.
The list of IBA's presented in this directory is by no means exhaustive. Atleast one third of protected areas in Thailand have never been surveyed ornithologically, and even with relatively better surveyed protected areas, survey coverage is far from complete. Consequently, there exist a number of sites that probably qualify as IBAs but for which insufficient reliable ornithological data are currently available to confirm this.

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