Important Bird Areas incorporated into Kazakh legislation
The recent revision of Kazakhstan's nature-protection legislation has resulted in the inclusion of the term "Important Bird Area” (IBA) in the law on Specially Protected Nature Areas in Kazakhstan. IBAs are now recognised and considered as "Objects of state nature-reserved foundation", these also include water bodies, remarkable landscape objects, or endangered species of animals and plants. This news is extremely positive for the future of the country’s biodiversity The new legislation states that the Government must implement measures for the protection and management of the IBAs, and, where appropriate, the presence of rich biodiversity could lead to the establishment of Special Protected Areas (SPAs). This inclusion is the result of three years of collaborative advocacy work between the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK; BirdLife in Kazakhstan) and the BirdLife Partnership, especially the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK), with the support of the Kazakh Committee of Forestry and Hunting. Next step is the inventory of all confirmed IBAs (121 at the moment) under the list of “Objects of state nature-reserved foundation". This list is revised every three to four years by a Governmental Decree and a new revision is planned this year. In the case of a success, all the IBAs included in this list would receive legislative protection.