BirdLife International's Important Bird Areas programme (IBA) was launched
in Morocco in 1995 by a steering committee comprised of three national NGO'
s, representatives from the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, the
University of Montpelier and BirdLife International. Subsequently the progr
amme's implementation has been overseen by the BirdLife Secretariat. It wil
l result in the publication of a national IBA inventory and the elaboration
of plans to promote the conservation of priority IBAs. The selection of IB
A sites is discussed and three examples of Moroccan IBAs are given.