Representation of Important Bird Areas in the Series of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Representation of Important Bird Areas in the series of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas Paper addressing Resolution 5 (2015) request to: ‘provide an update to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting on the extent to which these Important Bird Areas are, or should be, represented within the series of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPA), in particular those areas that might qualify as “major colonies of breeding native birds”’. Harris, C.M., Lorenz, K. & Syposz, M. 22 February 2017 Financially supported by the Governments of New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom Representation of Important Bird Areas in the series of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 3 2. Designation criteria ................................................................................................................. 3 2.1 ASPA designation criteria ......................................................................................................... 4 2.2 IBA designation criteria ............................................................................................................ 4 3. Current Status ......................................................................................................................... 7 3.1 Current status of ASPAs ............................................................................................................ 7 3.2 Current status of IBAs ............................................................................................................... 7 3.3 IBAs represented in the current ASPA network ..................................................................... 11 3.4 IBAs not represented in the current ASPA network ............................................................... 15 3.4.1 Emperor penguin .................................................................................................. 16 3.4.2 Adélie penguin ...................................................................................................... 17 3.4.3 Chinstrap penguin ................................................................................................ 18 3.4.4 Gentoo penguin .................................................................................................... 19 3.4.5 Macaroni penguin ................................................................................................ 19 3.4.6 Imperial shag ........................................................................................................ 20 3.4.7 South polar skua ................................................................................................... 21 3.4.8 Southern giant petrel ........................................................................................... 22 3.4.9 Antarctic petrel ..................................................................................................... 23 3.4.10 Southern fulmar ................................................................................................... 24 4. Representation of IBAs in the ASPA network .......................................................................... 25 4.1 Method A: Using population numbers as a discriminator of ‘major colonies’. ..................... 25 4.2 Method B: Using species diversity as a discriminator of ‘major colonies’. ............................ 27 4.3 Method C: Using a combination of population numbers and species diversity as a discriminator of ‘major colonies’. .................................................................................................... 28 5. Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 31 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 33 7. References ............................................................................................................................ 35 Appendix A: List of Important Bird Areas in Antarctica ................................................................ 39 Appendix B: List of all colonies identified through Method C ....................................................... 54 Appendix C: List of Important Bird Areas in Antarctica meeting criteria by Method...................... 56 Representation of Important Bird Areas in the series of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas 1. Introduction Antarctic wide census data for several bird species have been published over a number of years. One of the first comprehensive penguin inventories was compiled by Croxall and Kirkwood (1979) for the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland, South Orkney and the South Sandwich islands. This work was built on to include the remainder of the Antarctic region in Woehler (1993), which compiled census information from more than 100 publications. More recently Fretwell et al. (2012) and Lynch & LaRue (2014) derived population numbers for Emperor and Adélie penguins using satellite imagery. It is recognised that populations derived from satellite observations can be subject to considerable error (e.g. Barber-Meyer et al. 2007; Fretwell et al. 2012; Schwaller et al. 2013; Lynch & LaRue 2014; Lynch & Schwaller 2014; Southwell et al in press). Antarctic-wide compilations have also been made for flying bird species: van Franeker et al. (1999) on breeding colonies of Antarctic petrel; Hodum et al. (2004, unpublished) on breeding colonies of Cape petrel; Creuwels et al. (2007) on breeding colonies of Southern fulmar; and Patterson et al. (2008) on breeding colonies of Southern giant petrel. Until now, no systematic appraisal of these Antarctic wide census data has been undertaken to consider which of these colonies are, or should be, included within the series of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPA). Work recently completed to identify Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in Antarctica (Harris et al. 2015) has enabled a further analysis of the bird population data to contribute towards answering these questions. The results of this initial analysis are reported in this paper. At the XXXVIII Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) a Working Paper and Information Paper was presented by Australia, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States describing the recently completed analysis identifying IBAs in Antarctica, defined as the area south of 60° South. The IBA initiative was developed through collaboration between BirdLife International and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) that started in 1998 and was recently renewed with the support of a number of Antarctic Treaty Parties and several charitable organisations. Following the presentation of the papers the ATCM adopted Resolution 5 (2015), which includes the recommendation to: request the Committee for Environmental Protection to provide an update to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting on the extent to which these Important Bird Areas are, or should be, represented within the series of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPA), in particular those areas that might qualify as “major colonies of breeding native birds”. This paper aims to address this recommendation by examining the representation of IBAs in the series of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs), and identifying those IBAs that might qualify as “major colonies of breeding native birds”. 2. Designation criteria Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) and IBAs are designated according to different criteria, a summary of which is given below. Page 3 of 62 Representation of Important Bird Areas in the series of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas 2.1 ASPA designation criteria As stated in Article 3 of Annex V of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, any area, including any marine area, may be designated as an ASPA to protect outstanding environmental, scientific, historic, aesthetic or wilderness values, any combination of those values, or ongoing or planned scientific research. Furthermore, the article states that Parties should seek to include in the series of ASPAs, inter alia, ‘areas with important or unusual assemblages of species, including major colonies of breeding native birds or mammals’ 2.2 IBA designation criteria The global (Level A) IBA criteria were standardised for global application following extensive consultation amongst experts in the BirdLife International Partnership and related fields (Fishpool & Evans 2001) and are also used to identify IBAs in Antarctica. In some parts of the world additional criteria based on less stringent thresholds are used to identify IBAs of regional significance, although to date these have not been used in Antarctica. The following definitions of the IBA selection criteria are based on Fishpool & Evans (2001) and were applied in Antarctica: A1: Globally threatened species. “The site is known or thought regularly to hold significant numbers of a globally threatened species, or other species of global conservation concern”. The site qualifies if it is known, estimated or thought to hold a population of a species categorized by the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN) or Vulnerable (VU). In general, the regular presence of a CR or EN species, irrespective of population size, at a site may be sufficient for a site to qualify as an IBA. For VU species, the presence