An effective way of conserving birds is to conserve their habitats. BirdLife's Important Bird Area (IBA) Programme identifies sites that are particularly important and representative.

The objective of the programme is – in each country – to protect the sites with the bird species for which the country in question has special responsibility from an international point of view. The programme takes account not only of only breeding birds but also of concentrations of visiting birds.

Sites are selected as IBA sites for threatened species of birds on the basis of the high concentrations of birds and for the unique species found there, and because these sites are representative of distinct habitats. Approximately 12,000 IBAs have been identified worldwide, and 31 sites in Switzerland have been designated as fulfilling the IBA criteria.