TOWARDS A GLOBAL MAP OF BIODIVERSITY - PATTERNS IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF RESTRICTED-RANGE BIRDS

In response to predictions of mass extinctions in the twenty-first cen tury, birds can play a critically important role in identifying key si tes for biodiversity conservation. The BirdLife Biodiversity project h as mapped the distributions of all the world's restricted-range bird s pecies and identified the areas where they are concentrated. Re-analys is of project data originally published in 1992 has led to the identif ication of 218 'Endemic Bird Areas' (EBAs), defined as areas supportin g two or more species with ranges less than 50,000 km(2). Point locali ty data for a total of 2649 such restricted-range birds were mapped us ing GIS to identify these areas. A large series of regional maps and s ix tables present the project findings in outline, and details of revi sions to the original analysis are provided. In total, EBAs occupy a m ere 4.5% of the Earth's land surface, and contain 73% of all globally threatened birds; research to date indicates a high congruence of ende mism between birds and other life-forms, so that it is reasonable to p ropose that EBAs should be used as guides to general centres of endemi sm. Identifying refugia, the use of GIS and remote sensing, and exchan ge of information between biogeographers are three ways to continue th is work towards a global map of biodiversity.