巴拉圭重点鸟区(IBA)——湿地保护区

巴拉圭IBA（国际重要湿地

http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2006/12/pantanal.html湿地）得到保护

国际鸟盟重要湿地（IBA）是一项特别有效的确定湿地保护价值的方法。一旦该湿地被确定为IBA，通过由国家以及当地组织和个人进行的实地监督和保护，IBA项目成为建立国家制度层面和实施有效保护日程的有力手段。

“Protecting this site is a fantastic achievement.” said Alberto Yanosky, Guyra Paraguay Executive Director. “Its value for biodiversity has been long-recognised; now we’ve been given a chance to conserve it.”

The Pantanal is one of South America’s key ecosystems, being flooded seasonally by freshwater from the central Brazilian highlands.  Situated in the upper watershed of the Paraguay river, to the south of the Amazon basin and east of the Andes, the area represents the most extensive freshwater wetland in the world.

In 2005, the Paraguayan Pantanal was designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by Guyra Paraguay/BirdLife International based on its importance for congregations of waterbirds and regionally endemic bird species.

News of the area’s protection builds on achievements made by local people and communities in involving themselves in conservation activities within the Pantanal IBA. In 2003, young people from the neighbouring community of Puerto Bahía Negra, created ‘EcoClub Pantanal Paraguay’ – a community-based Site-Support Group (SSG) that has been involved in surveys and organised bird-watching camps for others living nearby. Notable achievements of this SSG include the establishment of a community radio station – the first of its kind in the area, funded by the World Bank development marketplace, through a proposal presented by Guyra Paraguay.

To further mark the educational value of the newly-protected area, a proposed visitor lodge will provide research facilities for scientists from both Paraguay and worldwide.

The Government of Paraguay has also declared its intention to allow expansion of boundaries around the nearby Rio Negro National Park, to link sites up with other protected areas, including the Pantanal IBA.

BirdLife’s Important Bird Areas (IBA) Programme has been a particularly effective way of identifying conservation priorities. Since IBAs are identified, monitored and protected by national and local organisations and individuals, working on the ground, the IBA Programme can be a powerful way to build national institutional capacity and to set an effective conservation agenda.