Buin (31327)
Papua New Guinea, Australasia

Site overview

KBA status: confirmed

Global KBA criteria: A1e

Year of last assessment: 2025

National site name: Buin

Central coordinates: Latitude: -6.5553, Longitude: 155.7223

System: terrestrial

Elevation (m): 0 to 2238

Area of KBA (km²): 1434.57062

KBA classification: Global

Legacy site: Yes

Site details

Site description: Buin is a large KBA in Bougainville, extending from the coastline of SE Bougainville, including Lahala Lake, the largest lake in the region, up to the Takuan and Loloru Volcanoes, over 2000m asl, the highest peaks in the south of the island. It includes the Crown Prince Range and the Deuro Range along the eastern boundary. The area is covered by tropical rainforest and is subject to an Equatorial climate. It is south of, and outside the watershed, of the Panguna copper mine, currently not in operation. There are no official protected areas within the site.

Rationale for qualifying as KBA: This is the sole location for two Critically Endangered plants, Geniostoma trichosylum and Litsea buinensis, and is also a legacy site for 4 amphibians, 10 birds, 9 mammals, 3 reptiles and 2 butterflies.

Manageability of the site: The site falls within the Buin Rural Local Level Government, within Bougainville, PNG. The upland forest areas around the volcanoes are unmanaged while the lowlands sites near human habitation are subject to deforestation as a consequence of agricultural expansion. Further assessment may justify splitting the site into multiple, habitat-focussed KBAs.

Delineation rationale: 2015-06-10 (BL Secretariat): site area changed from 87000 ha to 79183 ha, following 2012 CEPF Ecosystem Profile.

Habitats

IUCN Habitat	Coverage %	Habitat detail
Forest	35	Forest – Subtropical/tropical moist montane
Forest	65	Forest – Subtropical/tropical moist lowland

Threats

Summary of threats to biodiversity at KBA: Agricultural expansion poses a threat to the forest habitat. Due to the poor knowledge surrounding the population of Shearwaters' recorded at this site it is unknown if agricultural expansion is threatening the nesting areas. Forest work activities could be threatening the nesting areas for the population present. How much of a threat this poses is unknown. Invasive Alien Species represent the greatest threat to seabirds globally (Croxall et al. 2012), causing adult mortality and reduced productivity owing to egg and chick predation. No data exists on the presence of invasive alien species in the Crown Prince Range. Polynesian Rat is ubiquitous throughout the Pacific (IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group 2012) and is assumed to be present. Polynesian Rat has been recorded predating adult seabirds as well as eggs and chicks (Kepler 1967). They have precipitated island extinctions in small-bodied, ground-nesting seabirds, but their impacts on larger or arboreal nesting seabirds appear to be lower (Atkinson 1985, Jones et al. 2008). Black Rat, Brown Rat, Feral Cat, Feral Pig and Feral Goat are all plausible but unconfirmed residents. Each can potentially cause declines in seabird colonies, and ungulates can exacerbate the threat from other invasive mammals through habitat modification (Atkinson 1985, Rodríguez et al. 2006, Jones et al. 2008, Duffy 2010). Overall, invasive mammals are suspected to be present and are likely to be having a limiting effect on seabirds, or causing population declines. Human disturbance and direct harvesting of seabirds are listed as threats to 26 and 23 of the 97 globally threatened seabirds respectively (Croxall et al. 2012). For Near Threatened and Least Concern species it is likely that human disturbance and consumption affect an even greater proportion, particularly of tropical species, for which major reductions in populations and/or breeding sites are increasingly indicated but seldom quantified, especially across the whole range of the many wide-ranging tropical seabird species (Croxall et al. 2012). Human disturbance and direct harvesting may occur at this site. The sustainability of such harvests is unknown but it may represent a threat to this population. Seabirds are highly visually oriented and known to become disorientated at night in the presence of artificial light (Bruderer et al., 1999). On archipelagos worldwide, thousands of fledglings of different petrel species are attracted to artificial lights during their first flights from nest-burrows to the sea, a phenomenon called ‘fallout’ (Reed et al. 1985, Telfer et al. 1987, Le Corre et al. 2002, Rodríguez & Rodríguez 2009, Miles et al. 2010, Rodrigues et al. 2011). Grounded birds are vulnerable to starvation, predation, dehydration and collision with vehicles. The prevalence of this potential threat at this site is not known but it may be having a negative impact.

Additional information

References: Atkinson, I. A. E. (1985) The spread of commensal species of Rattus to oceanic islands and their effect on island avifaunas. Pages 35-81 in P. J. Moors, editor. Conservation of island birds. International Council for Bird Preservation, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Bruderer, B., Peter, D. and Steuri, T. (1999) Behavior of migrating birds exposed to Xband radar and a bright light beam. Journal of Experimental Biology 202: 1015–1022. Le Corre, M., Ollivier, A., Ribes, S. and Jouventin, P. (2002) Light-induced mortality of petrels: a 4-year study from Réunion Island (Indian Ocean). Biol. Conserv. 105: 93–102. Croxall, J. P., Butchart, S. H. M., Lascelles, B., Stattersfield, A. J., Sullivan, B., Symes, A. and Taylor, P. (2012) Seabird conservation status, threats and priority actions: a global assessment. Bird Conservation International 22: 1-34. Duffy, D. C. (2010) Changing Seabird Management in Hawai‘i: from exploitation through management to restoration. Waterbirds 33: 193-207. IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group (2012) Rattus exulans. Global Invasive Species Database. Downloaded from http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=170&fr=1&sts=sss on 8th October 2012. Jones, H. P., Tershy, B. R., Zavaleta, E. S., Croll, D. A., Keitt, B. S., Finkelstein, M. E. and Howald, G. R. (2008) Severity of the effects of invasive rats on seabirds: a global review. Conservation Biology 22: 16-26. Kepler, B. (1967) Polynesian rat predation on nesting Laysan Albatrosses and other Pacific seabirds. Auk 84: 426-430. Miles, W., Money, S., Luxmoore, R. and Furness, R.W. (2010) Effects of artificial lights and moonlight on petrels at St Kilda. Bird Study 57: 244–251. Reed, J.R., Sincock, J.L. & Hailman, J.P. (1985) Light attraction in endangered Procellariiform birds: reduction by shielding upward radiation. Auk 102: 377–383. Rodrigues, P., Aubrecht, C., Gil, A., Longcore, T. and Elvidge, C. (2011) Remote sensing to map influence of light pollution on Cory’s Shearwater in São Miguel Island, Azores Archipelago. Eur. J. Wildl. Res. doi: 10.1007/s10344-011-0555-5. Rodríguez, A. and Rodríguez, B. (2009) Attraction of petrels to artificial lights in the Canary Islands: effect of the moon phase and age class. Ibis 151: 299–310. Rodríguez, C., Torres, R. and Drummond, H. (2006) Eradicating introduced mammals from a forested tropical island. Biological Conservation 130: 98-105. Telfer, T.C., Sincock, J.L., Byrd, G.V. and Reed, J.R. (1987) Attraction of Hawaiian seabirds to lights: conservation efforts and effects of moon phase. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 15: 406–413.