Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) health check: volunteers required

Posted on 19 May, 2021 by Ivan

The Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) program is a global partnership of leading conservation groups with the aim to sustain the most important sites for nature. KBAs are nature hotspots, and we are blessed to have some in our own backyard, including the Bendigo Box-Ironbark Region KBA. This expanse of land covers Muckleford, Newstead, Strangways, Sandon and Strathlea, to the west of Castlemaine VIC.

Over 300 KBAs have been declared in Australia, mainly based on their importance for birds. These places also support over 60% of all threatened species in the country. To see all of the KBAs across Australia – click here

Dedicated teams of volunteers conduct yearly ecological health checks on the KBAs. One local coordinator and volunteer is Greg Turner, a passionate bird watcher with an excellent insight into the health of our region’s natural assets. Greg’s role is to target and promote volunteer action for these special places and the species that depend on them.

Greg contacted us seeking assistance with outstanding KBA assessments for 2021 in the Maryborough-Dunolly Box-Ironbark Woodlands KBA.

If you are in a position to assist with an assessment of the Maryborough-Dunnolly Box-Ironbark Woodlands KBA, please consider volunteering. For further information, read the following message from Greg Turner or contact him via email (gregturner1956@gmail.com).

Australian Owlet-nightjar at the Rise and Shine Bushland Reserve, part of the Box-Ironbark KBA (photo by Geoff Park)

Key Biodiversity Area Health check 2021

Maryborough Dunolly Box Ironbark Woodlands Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA)

Each Easter KBA Guardians have been submitting assessments on the condition of KBAs across the country. Victoria has 41 KBAs. Due to a range of reasons including Covid-19, only 9 were assessed in 2019-20.

This is an appeal to your members to help do more this year. The words below are from BirdLife Australia’s National KBA Coordinator, Golo Maurer. I believe some of your members would be able to fill out the form in under an hour because they know these areas.

If this is not the case, perhaps you could suggest some people who could help me.

Thank you

Greg Turner

gregturner1956@gmail.com

You can find all of the previous Easter Health Checks on this link.

https://portal.birdlife.org.au/kba-health-check

(Please note, you may run into trouble with your password this year, as our system provider just changed the rules, what an Easter egg that is! But essentially it is the simple standard process: 1. Click on Forgot password. 2. E-mail yourself a link to create the new password. 3. Submit a new 12-character password with letters, numbers and special characters. 4. Log into the portal with the new password.)

On much more pleasant note the 2020 Easter Health-Check was the first to crack the milestone of 100 KBAs assessed in Australia! Great work everyone. Thank you! We were also able to welcome Health-checks from KBAs that have been declared for species other than birds in the portal and Guardians can now print out a word document summarising their Health-check to take into account conversations with landholders, agency staff, volunteers etc.

Let’s make sure we can keep growing our knowledge on KBA Health in 2021.

If you need support with the portal Golo Maurer the National Coordinator is only an e-mail or phone call away: kba@birdlife.org.au , 0467 444 114 or contact your Victorian KBA Coordinator – Greg Turner. (see below).

Here are some tips for completing the Health-check:

Answer the questions with the Trigger Species of your KBA in mind. E.g.: How does this threat affect the Eastern Bristlebird or Migratory Shorebirds
Birdata has an ‘explore function’ for KBAs where you can search for the year’s bird surveys to help you with this https://birdata.birdlife.org.au/explore#area_layer_id=2&map=-22.5083100_136.0786120_4
Full info about your KBA can be found at http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/search
It is perfectly O.K. to say ‘Do not know’ for the state of the KBA or a Pressure if you are uncertain.

Thanks again for your help improving the places that matter most for wildlife in Australia!

Best Wishes

Greg Turner

Victorian State KBA Coordinator

I live overseas at the moment. If you wish to call me, leave your phone number and I will call you on Skype.