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Strategic environmental assessment for invasive species management on inhabited islands.

Available Online

Russel, J.

Taylor, C.

Over the past decade the challenges of managing invasive species on inhabited islands have clearly become limiting factors to scaling-up the area of invasive species eradications. Step-change is required to unleash the conservation and restoration potential of biodiversity on inhabited islands around the globe and avoid the pitfalls previous attempts to eradicate invasive species on inhabited islands have fallen into. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a systematic decision support process, aiming to ensure that environmental and other sustainability aspects are considered effectively throughout policy, plan and programme making. Within the framework of SEAs, on target islands eradication planners could implement a number of tools including stakeholder engagement, social impact assessment and economic cost benefit analysis alongside existing environmental impact assessment. Such a suite of assessments captures the immediate impacts of an eradication operation on a range of values, alongside predicted long-term changes in these tightly coupled socio-ecological systems. In this paper we outline what SEA is, and then contrast invasive species management attempts occurring outside an SEA framework on two similar but also contrasting UNESCO World Heritage islands; Lord Howe Island, Australia and Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. We then demonstrate how an SEA approach to invasive species management would assist planning in New Zealand to eradicate introduced mammalian predators from two large off shore islands in New Zealand; Aotea (Great Barrier Island) and Rakiura (Stewart Island). We conclude with future prospects for applying SEA to invasive species management on inhabited islands.

Invasive species removals and scale contrasting island and mainland experience

Available Online

Adriaens, T.

Booy, O.

Mill, A.

Robertson, P.

Roy, S.

Shirley, M.

Tatayah, V.

Ward, A.

Recent years have seen large increases in the number and size of successful invasive species eradications from islands. There is also a long history of large scale removals on larger land-masses. These programmes for mammals and terrestrial plants follow the same cost-area relationship although spanning 10 orders of magnitude in scale. Eradication can be readily defined in island situations but can be more complex on larger land-masses where uncertainties defining the extent of a population, multiple population centres on the same land-mass and ongoing risks of immigration are commonplace. The term complete removal is proposed to describe removal from an area with ongoing eff ort to maintain the area as clear, as features in many larger scale mainland programmes. Examples of complete removal to a boundary, in patches and in habitat islands are discussed. While island eradications continue to grow in scale, new legislation such as the lists of Species of European Union Concern will also drive increasing management on larger land-masses. However, these lists include large numbers of species that are already widespread. Methods are needed to prioritise species to reflect both the risks posed and the feasibility of management, including the effects of scale on cost and effectiveness.

Inception meeting report: Global Environment Facility 6

Strengthening national and regional capacities to reduce the impact of Invasive Alien Species on globally significant biodiversity in the Pacific

GEF6 RIP Project Steering Committee meeting

Available Online

Strengthening national and regional capacities to reduce the impact of Invasive Alien Species on globally significant biodiversity in the Pacific

Working with the local community to eradicate rats on an inhabited island: securing the seabird heritage of the Isles of Scilly

Available Online

Bell, E.

Buckley, P.

Garratt, W.

Lock, L.

Mason, S.

McCarthy, R.

Pearce, J.

Pearson, J.

Pierre, P.

Sugar, K.

The inhabited Isles of Scilly, 45 km off the south-western tip of the UK, are home to 13 seabird species including European storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) and Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), for which the UK has a global responsibility. Between 1983 and 2006, the overall seabird population in Scilly declined by c.25%. This decline triggered the establishment of the Isles of Scilly Seabird Recovery Project, a partnership with the aims to reverse seabird decline and engage the local community and visitors in conserving Scillys seabird heritage. The eradication of brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) from St Agnes and Gugh represented the result of over a decade of preparatory work, involving raising awareness and gaining 100% support from the community. The two islands are home to 85 people. Therefore additional, and somewhat unusual, preparations were required (including clearing sheds, communicating with school children and taking precautions to ensure the safety of pets) during the ground-based baiting operation. In 2016 St Agnes and Gugh were officially declared rat-free, meaning worldwide this is one of the largest community-based eradications to have been successful. Biosecurity on inhabited islands is complex, so to ensure the projects sustainability, eff orts have been community-led. The community has taken ownership of protecting its seabirds, with 100% saying rat removal and the subsequent increase in seabirds has had, or will have, a positive effect on ecotourism, a key source of income for the islands. No less than 68% of the community said their businesses have directly benefited. This project represents a case study for other community-based projects, showcasing how eradications can gain community support and benefit both wildlife and human populations.

Tuvalu national biodiversity strategy and action plan: fifth national report to the convention on biological diversity.

Available Online

Alefaio, S

Falega, E

Penivao, F

Saitala, M

Teakau, F

Tekenene, M

Thaman, R

The isolated, small, low-lying resource-poor atolls of Tuvalu are clearly on the frontline against climate change, the escalating impacts natural disasters and declining food, health and energy security.

A little goes a long way when controlling invasive plants for biodiversity conservation

Available Online

Dudley, T.

Knapp, D.

Knapp, J.

Stahlheber, K.

Invasive species, particularly animals, are being eradicated from islands at ever more ambitious scales. In order to protect island biodiversity and the essential ecosystem functions that it provides, however, plant invasions should be given more management attention. While many advances have been made, plant eradication is inherently more difficult than animal eradication due to persistent seed banks, and eradication may not be possible for more extensive populations. While maintenance control has been successful, critics question the sustainability and priority of these efforts, and targets vary widely. Developing consistent and informed targets requires an understanding of how biodiversity varies with invader cover, yet little is known about this topic. Our research suggests that limited control efforts may be highly beneficial. We conducted a meta-analysis of 54 studies to investigate the effects of plant invasions on invertebrate diversity, incorporating invader cover and residence time as potential causal mechanisms. We also contrasted restored plots with otherwise native plots. We found that invertebrate species richness was 31% lower in exotic plots than in native plots, and that there is a threshold at around 70% invader cover after which the negative effects are significant across all studies. Furthermore, these negative effects tended to decrease with time, and invertebrate richness was even greater in restored plots. The implication is that by removing 30% or less of invasive plant cover and restoring natives, we can achieve many of our conservation goals. We argue that by maintaining invasive patches at or below 70% exotic cover at a site in the near term, we can buy time for both the islands insect herbivores to adapt to use the invader, and for managers to continue improving plant eradication technologies. By retaining native diversity in this way, we can help to increase the resistance and resilience of these systems to global change and other stressors.

Tracking invasive species eradications on islands at a global scale

Island and Ocean Ecosystems, BRB

Available Online

Cowan, P.

Genovesi, P.

Hein, S.

Holmes, N.

Keitt, B.

Russell, J.

Spatz, D.

Tershy, B.

Will, D.

Indicators for tracking conservation efforts at a global scale are rare but important tools for understanding trends and measuring progress towards global conservation targets. Eradication of invasive species from islands is an increasingly used conservation intervention in countries and territories around the world. With a goal of collating these efforts, the Database of Islands and Invasive Species Eradications (DIISE) holds records of the location, target species, year and outcome of invasive mammal and bird eradications on islands from around the world. The database is publicly available in Spanish and English, at , and represents a partnership between the University of California at Santa Cruz, University of Auckland, IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group, Landcare Research and Island Conservation. The database holds records for more than 1,200 eradication attempts. This database will continue to be added to and evolve as new opportunities for its application arise; thus, we expect these numbers to change over time as new events are added and knowledge about existing events improves.

Multi island, multi invasive species eradication in French Polynesia demonstrates economies of scale

Available Online

Coulston, G.

Cranwell, S.

Derand, D.

Ghestemme, T.

Griffiths, R.

Hall, T.

Pott, M.

Will, D.

Zito, J.

Eradication of invasive vertebrates on islands has proven to be one of the most effective returns on investment for biodiversity conservation. To recover populations of the critically endangered Polynesian ground dove (Gallicolumba erythroptera), the endangered white-throated storm-petrel (Nesofregetta fuliginosa), the endangered Tuamotu sandpiper (Prosobonia cancellata) as well as other native plant and animal species, a project was undertaken to eradicate five species of invasive alien vertebrates: Pacific rat (Rattus exulans), ship rat (R. rattus), feral cat (Felis catus), rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and goat (Capra hircus), on six islands spanning 320 km of open ocean in the Tuamotu and Gambier Archipelagos of French Polynesia. Using a ship to deliver supplies and equipment, a helicopter for offloading and bait application, and ground teams for follow up trapping and hunting, invasive vertebrates were successfully removed from five of the six islands. Pacific rats survived at one site. The project was planned and executed by a partnership consisting of international and local conservation NGOs, working together with local communities. Combining the different eradication operations into one expedition added complexity to project planning and implementation and increased the risk of the operation failing on any one island but generated greater returns on investment allowing six islands to be targeted at significantly less cost than if each island had been completed individually. An extensive and thorough planning effort, effective relationships with local stakeholders and communities, a good operational strategy and a partnership of stakeholders that each brought complementary capacities to the project contributed to its success.

Trialling gene drives to control invasive species: what, where and how?

Available Online

Alphey, L.

Campbell, K.

Edgington, M.

Harvey-Samuel, T.

The control of invasive species would be enhanced through the addition of novel, more effective and sustainable pest management methods. One control option yet to be trialled in the field is to deploy transgene-based Gene Drives: technologies which force the inheritance of a genetic construct through the gene pool of a wild population, suppressing it or replacing it with a less harmful form. There is considerable interest in applying gene drives to currently intractable invasives across a broad taxonomic range. However, not all species will make efficient or safe targets for these technologies. Additionally, the safety and efficacy of these systems will vary according to where they are deployed, the specific molecular design chosen, and how these factors interact with the ecology of the target pest. Given the transformative but also controversial nature of gene drives, it is imperative that their first field trials are able to successfully demonstrate that they can be used safely and efficiently. Here, we discuss how to maximise the probability of this outcome through considering three important questions: What types of invasive species should we use to trial gene drives? Where should we be trialling them? and How should these trials be conducted? In particular, we focus on the ecological, genetic and geographic features of small, isolated islands which make them ideal locations for these initial trials. A case study of an island invasive that is deemed highly appropriate for gene drive intervention, and for which gene drive development is currently underway (Mus musculus), is used to further explore these concepts

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