They are places of international importance for conserving biodiversity through protected areas and other methods and are identified nationally using simple, standard criteria, based on their importance in maintaining species populations.
Key Biodiversity Areas are the building blocks for conservation planning at the landscape level. Governments, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, the private sector and other groups can use key biodiversity areas as a tool to identify national networks of internationally important sites for conservation.
The IUCN standard to identify ‘key biodiversity areas’ coordinates the different approaches being used and covers terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems (in the latter case, sites are known as “ecologically and biologically significant areas”).
