Using important plant areas and important bird areas to identify Key Biodiversity Areas in the Republic of Macedonia

Aleksandar Sarov,Vasko Avukatov,Metodija Velevski,Ljupcho Melovski,Vlado Matevski

doi:10.11609/jott.o2997.2766-78

Abstract

An attempt is made to identify Key Biodiversity Areas in the Republic of Macedonia through the identification of internationally recognized important areas for biodiversity: Important Plant Areas (IPAs) and Important Bird Areas (IBAs). Forty two IPAs covering 6,495km2 and 24 IBAs covering 6,907km2 have been identified in Macedonia. Thirty seven IPAs (6,152km2 or 24% of the country’s territory) and 15 IBAs (4,821km2 or 18.75% of the national territory), meet KBA criteria, between them yielding 42 KBAs. The remaining five IPAs and nine IBAs do not meet KBA criteria although have international significance. Together IPAs and IBAs total 10,698km2; those meeting the KBA criteria total 9,670km2. In total, 73% and 65% of the entire national protected areas (PAs) surface overlaps with IPAs and IBAs respectively. This proportion is 81% for the 42 KBAs. However, only 25% of the total size of protected areas overlaps with IPAs, only 21% overlap with IBAs, and only 19% with the combined 42 KBAs. This means that Macedonia’s protected areas system is not yet representative and comprehensive for safeguarding its botanical and avian diversity.

Highlights

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are defined as sites of global significance for biodiversity conservation, and are intended to capture the world’s most important natural heritage
The main goal of this study is to identify the most important sites for biodiversity in Macedonia, using a combination of Important Plant Areas (IPAs) and Important Bird Areas (IBAs) that have already been identified
The IPA criteria overlap to an extent with those used to identify KBAs sensu Langhammer et al (2007) and the current analysis has focused on

Summary

Introduction

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are defined as sites of global significance for biodiversity conservation, and are intended to capture the world’s most important natural heritage. They are identified and delineated through a defined methodology (Langhammer et al 2007), which includes to an extent, that used to identify Important Birds Areas (Heath & Evans 2000) and Important Plant Areas (Anderson 2002). The Republic of Macedonia covers an area of 25,713km characterized by mountainous terrain in the west and east, and lowland habitats in the centre. It occupies a central position on Balkan Peninsula (Fig. 1) and contains alpine, continental sub-mediterranean and pontic steppe biogeographic zones. The habitat diversity is very high, as shown by the diversity of plant communities

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion