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Nature Tourism in the Buffalo Niagara Region
In 2000, Buffalo Audubon began a partnership with the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo and the Buffalo-Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau to help kick start the eco-tourism niche in the local tourism industry while raising awareness and appreciation of the Niagara River Important Bird Area (NRIBA) and other natural attractions in Western New York. The project brought out-of-town tour operators to Western New York for familiarization tours, produced a Nature Tourism Guide as a new tool by tourism promotion agencies, create and packaged nature tourism packages and destinations, and marketed the nature attractions of WNY in out-of-town media.
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Buffalo Audubon’s ultimate commitment to promoting, interpreting and conserving the NRIBA will be realized when the Niagara Audubon Birds of Prey Center begins operations in 2004. A startup award of $800,000 from the Niagara County Environmental Fund in 2003 launched the development process for the anticipated $4 million center in Lewiston, NY.
Canoe and Cruse with Buffalo Audubon and the Seaway Trail Tour Operators: |
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Habitat loss and degradation due to human expansion as our population soars are the most serious threat to the survival of many bird species and other wildlife here and abroad. The Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program is a worldwide response to this challenge.
Habitat loss and fragmentation are the most serious threats facing populations of birds across America and around the world. Unless we can slow the rapid destruction and degradation of habitat, populations of many birds may decline to dangerously low levels. The IBA program is a global effort to identify the areas that are most important for maintaining bird populations, and focus conservation efforts at protecting these sites.
The aim of the IBA Program is to identify and conserve key breeding
and feeding sites for birds. An Important Bird Area is a place that provides
essential habitat for one or more species of bird, whether in breeding
season, winter, or during migration. These sites are considered to be
exceptionally important for bird conservation. Protection of the most
critical of these sites is one important approach to the protection of
many bird species. Within the United States, the IBA program is part of
the larger Partners in Flight program that, in turn, is part of the North
Ameican Bird Conservation Initiative. These larger programs have additional
landscape and management-based approaches to bird conservation. Taken
together, these approaches are designed to help ensure the survival of
all bird species.
IBA Links
National Audubon Society IBA site
Important Bird Areas in Western New York
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