Wua/Dccember 1 997 
23 
mo most important are the Kenyan Mountains EBA 
and the East African Coastal Forests EBA. Kenya 
holds all the restricted-range species (nine and 
seven, respectively) in these EBAs. We also have 
smaller parts of the Tanzania-Malawi Mountains 
EBA (three out of 37 species, all in the Taita Hills), 
the Serengeti Plains EBA (two out of six species), 
and the Jubba & Shabeelle Valleys EBA (one oui of 
five species — this EBAjust creeps into the extreme 
north-eastern comer of the country ). Secondary 
areas are the Kakamega and Nandi Forests (with 
Chapin's Flycatcher Muse I cop a Icndu). the North 
Kenyan Short-grass Plains (With Williams's Lark 
Mirafra wiUmmsi ) and Ml Kulnl (with Kulal White- 
eve Znsierops kululensl*). Once again, not all the 
species recognised by BirdLife arc considered full 
species by the EANHS — for example, the Kulal 
While-eve is normally considered a distinctive race 
of the Montane White-eye Z pitUngasfer. 
3. Biome-restrictcd assemblages. The site holds a 
significant component of the group of bird species 
whose distributions are largely or wholly confined 
to one biome. A ‘biome’ is a major regional ecological 
community, characterised by distinctive life forms 
and principal plant species — and. in this case, by a 
group of bird species with largely shared 
distributions (of more than 50.000 km\ Kenya has 
substantial areas of the Somali-Masai biome (92/1 30 
species), the East African Coast biome (30/36 
species), the large Afrotropical I liglilands biome (67/ 
224 species) and the small Lake Victoria Busin biome 
(9/12 species). Kenya also holds the easternmost 
outliers of the Guinea -Congo Forests Biome ( 43/278 
species) and the Sudan and Guinea Savannah Biome 
(13/54 species). 
4 Congregations. Sites that regu!arl> hold very large 
numbers of birds may qualify as IBAs. The critenu 
used are based, with slight modifications, on those 
of the Ramsar Convention Thus, sites qualify under 
this category if they hold more than 1 % of the 
biogcographic population of a woterbird. or more 
than 20.000 waterbirds in all. Sites that hold large 
numbers of congregatory seabirds or terrestrial 
species, or that form a migratory bottleneck, are also 
included. 
IBAs in Kenya 
Work to identify IBAs in Kenya began in January 1 995 
Hie programme is co-ordinated by the liANHS. with 
the Ornithology Department of the National Museums 
of Kenya doing most of the technical work. Financial 
support has been prov ided by the Royal Society Tor the 
Protection of Birds. 
fhc initial step was to assess our present knowledge 
identify gaps. An extensive set of surveys was then 
^sJertaken by the Ornithology Department to try and 
fill is many of these as possible. From 1995 to 1997. 
surveys were carried out in creeks, estuaries and 
beaches along the Kenya coast from the Tanzania border 
u-t Kiwayuu. all the major papyrus swamps along the 
Lake Victoria shoreline in Kenya, the five large dams on 
the upper Tana river. South Nandi forest, forests on Mt 
Kenya and around Eldama Ravine, the Cherangani Hills, 
the Taita Hills, and moist grassland in Busia and Suba 
Districts. 
Although 64 IBAs were initially listed, some adjacent 
sites have now been merged and the final list numbers 
60 (see the map). There are IBAs identified in all 
provinces of the country except North-Eastern (Table 
1 ). The lock of IBAs here reflects both a lack of 
knowledge and the rattier uniform character of this 
province, which contains species characteristic of the 
Somali-Masai biome that arc well-protected elsewhere. 
Malkaman National Reserve (within the Jubba-Shabeclle 
River Valleys Endemic Bird Area) is a potential IBA in 
this province that needs to be surveyed in the future. 
Table 1. Numbers of IBAs per province (eight sites 
overlap provinces) 
Province 
Number of IBAs 
Rift Valley 
20 
Coast 
19 
Eastern 
11 
Central 
6 
Nyanza 
5 
Western 
5 
Nairobi 
2 
North-eastern 
0 
The majority o! IBAs fall into more than one categoiy 
(Table 2). Overall, the globally-threatened species 
category contains the largest number of sites. Although 
30 sites Tull into the restricted-range species category , 
no site is listed exclusively on this basis. Eight sites are 
listed solely for the large congregations of birds they 
contain, and six solely for (heir biomc-resincted species. 
Most IBAs in Kenya are forests or wetlands 
(Table 3). There is n small number in the drier savanna 
or desert habitats and just live in moist grassland. Sites 
in other habitats, which arc difficult to classify, include 
the Mukurwcini and Kianyaga Valleys (in heavily 
populated agricultural areas) and O! Donyo Sabache. 
which contains forest and bushland but is listed mainly 
for its cliffs. 
Most of the forest and savanna sites, but relatively 
few of those in other habitats, have some level of formal 
protection already However, a classification of sites into 
two broad allegories of threat (low/modcrate versus 
high/vety high) reveals the inadequacy of the present 
level of protection in the case of forests. Despite being 
Forest Reserves in most coses, almost all forest areas 
fall into the higher threat category , The same is true of 
almost ull the moist grasslands, but just half the wetlands 
and u quarter of the savanna sites. The total area of 
forests, moist grassland and wetlands in Kenya is small, 
and these sites are often in densely populated areas 
with heavy and increasing human pressures. 
I Insurprisingly. the main threat to all these sites is habitat 
loss and degradation through human activities. 
