Establishing Important Bird Areas in Lebanon

Migrating White Storks in Lebanon

The conservation of birds in Lebanon is a major conservation priority for several reasons:

Very large numbers of migrating birds pass through Lebanon each spring and autumn e.g. 500,000 White Storks (Ciconia ciconia) each spring and more than 50,000 Lesser Spotted Eagles (Aquila pomarina) each autumn.
Certain birds with a restricted regional or global range occur, e.g. Crimson-winged Finch (Rhodopechys sanguinea).
Hunting is very common and almost uncontrolled (estimates are that 17% of the population are active hunters). Much of this hunting is indiscriminate and the toll on soaring birds is particularly heavy.
Poorly controlled urban and rural development is leading to the loss of roosting and feeding habitats.

One effective technique for conservation developed by BirdLife International has been to create a global network of Important Bird Areas (IBAs). IBAs are key sites for conservation, small enough to be conserved as a whole and characterised by one or more of the following attributes: they have significant numbers of one or more globally threatened species; they are one of a set of sites that together hold a number of species of restricted occurrence; they have exceptionally large numbers of species that are either migratory or congregate in large numbers.

Birds shot by a hunter in Lebanon

In 1994 four IBAs were identified within Lebanon, one of them the Aammiq wetland that is the focus of A Rocha Lebanon’s work. In collaboration with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL), A Rocha Lebanon embarked on an ambitious programme to identify and protect new IBAs.

This work was split into two phases and has been conducted over three years between 2005 and 2007. The first phase identified new IBAs by visiting prospective sites and surveying them for their bird life, working according to BirdLife International protocols. This is critical as there is a lack of field research to identify important sites such as those where migrating birds fly low and are therefore vulnerable, where raptors and water birds overwinter, and where species with limited regional or global distribution occur.

Following A Rocha’s surveys four sites were awarded IBA status by BirdLife International in April 2006, namely Sannine, Tannourine, Lake Qaraaoun, and Aanjar/Kfar Zabad. Further investigations were carried out in 2006 at sites along the Damour River, hilly wooded areas around Yammouneh and Bentael and an area of Lebanon’s desert near Hermel which is home to biome-restricted species not found elsewhere in the country, such as Mourning Wheatear, Scrub Warbler, Desert, Bar-tailed and Temminck’s Larks. Locations on the Anti-Lebanon mountain range plus the Litani and Orontes river valleys are expected to be among the sites visited in 2007.

The second phase set out to conserve each new IBA through the creation, training and commissioning of a site support group, accountable to a local management committee and working to a site management statement. The site support group and management committee will between them be responsible for site protection and monitoring. This work is beginning.

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Project leader: Chris Naylor. For further information please contact lebanon@arocha.org

Partner: Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon, MAVA