Lowendal Islands (Australia) - BirdLife IBA factsheet

Lowendal Islands

Current view: Data table and detailed info

IBA Justification

The site was identified as important in 2009 because it was regularly supporting significant populations of the species listed below, meeting ('triggering') IBA criteria.

Populations meeting IBA criteria ('trigger species') at the site:

Species	Red List¹	Season	Year(s)	Size	IBA criteria
Bridled Tern Onychoprion anaethetus	LC	breeding	1995	3,000-5,000 breeding pairs	A4i
Greater Crested Tern Thalasseus bergii	LC	breeding	1997-2008	4,000-9,097 breeding pairs	A4i

1. The current IUCN Red List category. The category at the time of the IBA criteria assessment (2009) may differ.

IBA Conservation

Ideally the conservation status of the IBA will have been checked regularly since the site was first identified in 2009. The most recent assessment (2008) is shown below.

IBA conservation assessment
Year of assessment	State	Pressure	Response
2008	not assessed	medium	not assessed
Whole site assessed?	State assessed by	Accuracy of information
yes	unset	good

Pressure (threats to the trigger species and/or their habitats)
Threat	Timing	Scope	Severity	Result
Energy production and mining	likely in long term (beyond 4 years)	majority/most of area/population (50-90%)	moderate to rapid deterioration	medium
Invasive and other problematic species and genes	happening now	some of area/population (10-49%)	no or imperceptible deterioration	low

Response (conservation actions taken for the trigger species and/or their habitats)
Protected areas	Management plan	Other action	Result
Not assessed	Not assessed	Not assessed	not assessed

IBA Protection

Year	Protected Area	Designation	% overlap with IBA
1976	Lowendal Islands	Nature Reserve	100

Habitats

Habitat¹	Habitat detail	% of IBA
Shrubland		major (>10)
Marine Coastal/Supratidal		-

1. IUCN Habitat classification.

Land use

Land use	% of IBA
nature conservation and research	major (>10)
energy production and mining	minor (<10)

Land ownership

Varanus Island managed by DEC as part of Lowendal Islands Nature Reserve (class C) but 30 ha leased to Apache Energy for oil and gas production.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Lowendal Islands (Australia). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/lowendal-islands-iba-australia on 22/11/2024.