BirdLife Partners in Africa are involved in research, conservation action, environmental education and sustainable development through a broad agenda focusing on birds and other biodiversity, as well as social and economic issues such poverty alleviation. This work has often focused on Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs).

Working in their own countries, the partners developed many innovative approaches to IBA conservation in the African context. But although these conservation “tools” were of potential use across the continent, they were documented in a piecemeal fashion, often tucked away in small-circulation journals and unpublished reports.

In 2006, the Aage V. Jensen charity Foundation provided funding to bring all this knowledge together in the form of a “toolkit”, a practical field manual for researchers, conservation practitioners and policy-makers concerned with the management of IBAs in Africa.

The AVJCF grant covered the costs of collecting and collating reports and guidelines from BirdLife partners, planning, designing, writing and editing the contents, and printing and distribution. The toolkit, published in English and French in 2008, is a comprehensive guide to identifying, monitoring and managing IBAs, establishing IBA Site Support Groups, training and capacity building, and the advocacy and mainstreaming of IBAs into national policy and protected area networks.

In the years since its publication, the Toolkit for Important Bird Area Conservation in Africa has become an indispensable guide for BirdLife’s work at international, regional, national and site level. The book has also been widely taken up outside the BirdLife Africa Partnership, by national parks authorities and government wildlife agencies, and by other conservation NGOs working in Africa.