In Europe, BirdLife Partners challenge threats to IBAs through hundreds of legal cases every year. Within the EU in 2014 alone, BirdLife pursued 63 cases involving IBAs, all of which have now been submitted as complaints to the European Commission as breaches of EU environmental protection laws. An example is the case of Kaliakra IBA in Bulgaria, where unregulated large-scale development of wind turbines, along with other pressures, threatens wintering populations of the globally threatened Red-breasted Goose Branta ruficollis.

In Africa, eight IBAs have recently been the focus of intensive, internationally supported BirdLife campaigns. These include some notable successes, such as the Tana River Delta in Kenya, which was designated as a Ramsar Site after several years of hard work with local and national stakeholders.