Rainforest Trust is pleased to announce that it is now an official partner of the Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) Partnership. This partnership, which was formed in 2016, brings together 12 leading nature conservation organizations to have a unified voice in identifying, mapping, monitoring and conserving important sites for biodiversity conservation.

“The KBA Partnership brings together the world’s leading conservation organizations with their combined knowledge, partner networks, financial resources and science and monitoring programs to identify and conserve the planet’s critically important areas,” said Rainforest Trust Chief Executive Officer Dr. Paul Salaman.

“So it is essential that we join the KBA Partnership – the most important initiative to direct conservation actions since the IUCN Red List was launched 50 years ago.”

Rainforest Trust has long been focused on conserving areas that are recognized as critical for biodiversity conservation. In fact, the vast majority of our protected areas are either wholly or partially within confirmed KBAs, or are likely to be labeled as ones once assessed under the new KBA Standard. This standard provides us with a common methodology for identifying priorities for conservation, and as we move forward we will strive to ensure that all our protected areas meet the KBA Standard.

Rainforest Trust will work with our local partners and other KBA Partnership organizations to support the formation of National Coordination Groups, so that national processes to identify, document and map KBAs can efficiently be implemented. We will also incorporate much of the KBA Standard into our selection process for determining on which areas to focus our protected area funding. One of our biggest priorities is to fund areas that have significant proportions of the populations of highly threatened animal and plant species.

“We look forward to working with the entire KBA Partnership to identify and monitor the integrity of the world’s Key Biodiversity Areas,” said Dr. George Wallace, Rainforest Trust’s Chief Conservation Officer. “The KBA initiative literally provides us with a roadmap to the places we most want to protect – it really couldn’t be more important.”

The other 11 participating organizations include BirdLife International, IUCN, Amphibian Survival Alliance, Conservation International, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, Global Environment Facility, Global Wildlife Conservation, NatureServe, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Wildlife Conservation Society and World Wide Fund for Nature.