The Koniambo Massif is a mountain range near the town of Voh on the west coast of the North Province of

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, a French territory in the south-west Pacific Ocean. It is the site of a large

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

Important Bird Areas

A 12,000 ha tract of largely forested land encompassing the Koniambo Massif has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

as the Koniambo Massif Important Bird Area ( IBA) because it is a breeding site for an estimated 200–400 pairs of burrow-nesting

Tahiti Petrel The Tahiti petrel (''Pseudobulweria rostrata'') is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is found in American Samoa, Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Mexico, New Caledonia, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, and p ...

s. Potential threats to the birds come from a suite of

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

, including

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

feral pig The feral pig is a domestic pig which has gone feral, meaning it lives in the wild. They are found mostly in the Americas and Australia. Razorback and wild hog are Americanisms applied to feral pigs or boar-pig hybrids. Definition A feral pi ...

s and

cats The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of t ...

, as well as from mining operations and disorientation from

light pollution Light pollution is the presence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive use of artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting, during the day ...

. An associated area of of sea, based on a seaward extension of from the Koniambo Massif has been identified as a separate IBA, the Voh Marine Important Bird Area, which encompasses the foraging range of the breeding colony of the petrels. Potential threats in this area include fishing and

marine pollution Marine pollution occurs when substances used or spread by humans, such as industrial waste, industrial, agricultural pollution, agricultural and municipal solid waste, residential waste, particle (ecology), particles, noise, excess carbon dioxid ...

References

Important Bird Areas of New Caledonia Mountains of New Caledonia Seabird colonies {{NewCaledonia-geo-stub