The Important Bird Area (IBA) Programme was established by BirdLife International as a global initiative to identify, protect and manage a network of sites that are important for the long term viability of naturally occurring bird populations, across the geographical range of those species for which a site based approach is appropriate. In Africa, one of the recent initiatives of the programme is a project Instituting effective monitoring of Protected Areas (Important Bird Areas) as a contribution to reducing the rate of biodiversity loss in Africa. Funded by the European Union, this project was implemented from 2007 to 2011, in eight African countries (Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Kenya, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe). It adopted the methodology of using birds as environmental indicator species. The methodology used is the State–Pressure–Response model.