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Valuing the impact of selected invasive species in the Polynesia-Micronesia hotspot, final report

Available Online

Aalbersberg, Bill

Boudjelas, Souad

Brown, Pike

Daigneault, Adam

Greenhalgh, Suzie

Mather, John

Nagle, William

Invasive species pose an enormous threat in the Pacific: not only do they strongly affect biodiversity, but they also potentially affect the economic, social, and cultural wellbeing of Pacific peoples. Invasive species can potentially be managed and that their impacts can potentially be avoided, eliminated, or reduced. However, neither the costs nor the numerous benefits of management are well understood in the Pacific. Thus, the goals of this project were: A) to account for both the costs and benefits of managing invasive species; B) to prepare empirically grounded advocacy materials to help increase investment in the management of invasive species; C) to help governments prioritise investment in managing these species; and D) to build capability for undertaking economic assessments in the future. To accomplish these goals, we undertook cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) of managing five species that are well established on Viti Levu, Fiji: spathodea campanulata (African tulip tree), herpestus javanicus (small Asian mongoose), papuana uninodis (taro beetle), pycnonotus cafer (red-vented bulbul), and merremia peltata (merremia vine). Next, we conducted a comprehensive training programme on the CBA for invasive species management for professionals from the Pacific. Third, we collaborated with Pacific organisations to develop a uniform guide to conducting CBAs with numerous examples from the region. We also designed a flexible Microsoft Excel-based tool for conducting CBAs, enabling professionals who did not attend the training course to nevertheless undertake rigorous CBAs on invasive spsecies management. Finally, we developed advocacy material and publicised findings from this project to promote investment in invasive species management. This report details these activities in turn. It also includes numerous appendices that include the tools, guidance documents, and advocacy materials developed under this project.

A toolkit for the economic analysis of invasive species

Available Online

Emerton, Lucy

Howard, Geoffrey

The aim of this toolkit is to provide a clear, user-friendly guide to the application of economic approaches and tools to invasive species. It addresses the issues associated with identifying the factors which cause the spread of invasives, incorporating consideration of invasive species into economic planning and policy-making, and identifying economic tools and measures to support on-the-ground management actions designed to address biological invasions. This toolkit has been produced for use in training courses to be held in Africa. It is targeted primarily at economists working in research and planning in universities, research institutions, government agencies and non-governmental organisations. However, it is intended that the toolkit will also provide guidance on economics tools and approaches to scientists who are working on invasive species management.

Archipelago-wide island restoration in the Galapagos Islands: Reducing costs of invaisve mammal eradication programs and reinvasion risk

Available Online

Campbell, Karl J.

Carrion, Victor

Cruz, Felipe

Donian, C. Josh

Lavoie, Christian

Invasive alien mammals are the major driver of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation on islands. Over the past three decades, invasive mammal eradication from islands has become one of society's most powerful tools for preventing extinction of insular endemics and restoring insular ecosystems. As practitioners tackle larger islands for restoration, three factors will heavily influence success and outcomes: the degree of local support, the ability to mitigate for non-target impacts, and the ability to eradicate non-native species more cost-effectively. Investments in removing invasive species, however, must be weighed against the risk of reintroduction. One way to reduce reintroduction risks is to eradicate the target invasive species from an entire archipelago, and thus eliminate readily available sources. We illustrate the costs and benefits of this approach with the efforts to remove invasive goats from the Galápagos Islands. Project Isabela, the world's largest island restoration effort to date, removed > 140,000 goats from > 500,000 ha for a cost of US$10.5 million. Leveraging the capacity built during Project Isabela, and given that goat reintroductions have been common over the past decade, we implemented an archipelago-wide goat eradication strategy. Feral goats remain on three islands in the archipelago, and removal efforts are underway. Efforts on the Galápagos Islands demonstrate that for some species, island size is no longer the limiting factor with respect to eradication. Rather, bureaucratic processes, financing, political will, and stakeholder approval appear to be the new challenges. Eradication efforts have delivered a suite of biodiversity benefits that are in the process of revealing themselves. The costs of rectifying intentional reintroductions are high in terms of financial and human resources. Reducing the archipelago-wide goat density to low levels is a technical approach to reducing reintroduction risk in the short-term, and is being complemented with a longer-term social approach focused on education and governance.

The legacy of Big South Cape: rat irruption to rat eradication

Available Online

Bell, Brian D.

Bell, Elizabeth A.

Merton, Don V.

Big South Cape Island (Taukihepa) is a 1040 ha island, 1.5 km from the southwest coast of Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand. This island was rat-free until the incursion of ship rats (Rattus rattus) in, or shortly before, 1963, suspected to have been accidentally introduced via local fishing boats that moored at the island with ropes to the shore, and were used to transport the mutton birders to the island. This incursion was reported by the muttonbirders local Iwi who harvest the young of titi (sooty shearwater, Puffinus riseus) to the then New Zealand Wildlife Service (via the New Zealand Department of Lands and Survey). Investigation into the reports found ship rats had reached the island and had decimated the local land bird populations. Brian Bell and Don Merton attempted some of the first translocations of South Island saddleback (Philesturnus c. carunculatus), Stewart Island snipe (Coenocorypha aucklandica iredalei) and Steads bush wren (Xenicus longipes variabilis) with only the saddleback being successful. Extinctions of the snipe, wren and greater short-tailed bat (Mystacina robusta) were recorded. This was the first time rats were definitively recognised as the cause of extinction of native land birds and directed further debate into the impacts of rats and how to deal with them.

Rural women and food security in Asia and the Pacific: Prospects and paradoxes

Available Online

Balakrishnan, Revathi

Fairbairn-Dunlop, Peggy

Agriculture and food production offer stable livelihood options to rural communities throughout Asia and the Pacific region. Even as the effects of globalization spread in the region, farm production most often at the smallholder level continues to be a family enterprise. A fair share of farmers in the region engages in subsistence farming and poverty is a common occurrence among them. Farm enterprises are mostly managed by family members and family labour is a critical asset and often the only reliable investment. As rural women and men toil to preserve their heritage and broaden their economic choices, their endeavours are made more difficult by a lack of resources and market fluctuations. Asian and Pacific farmers, both men and women, are guardians of biodiversity, household food security and providers of food to urban communities. In these small farm enterprises distinct gender roles and gender differentiated access to technology and resources are evident. This disparity is compounded by the neglect of investment in rural social infrastructures such as education, health care and communications. In such resource poor rural environments, the struggle by rural women for access to resources and services is inevitable. In many Asian and Pacific countries, substantial gender equality gains have been made in urban areas in education, health and employment. Yet rural women lag behind. Moreover, rural womens work is multifaceted and demanding both as family workers and agricultural labourers. Social and economic indicators often do not do justice to their contributions. Development innovations such as microcredit and self-help groups promote rural womens economic development, but emerging evidence suggests that gender equality in rural communities is far from an everyday reality. Persisting social biases and traditional perceptions and assumptions regarding womens responsibilities and their capacities continue to hamper womens progress. This publication presents an overview of both the substantial contribution made by rural women to the economies in the region and the persisting barriers to their advancement. The framework of analysis, data and information reviewed together illustrate the complexity of rural womens work in the region and offer a broad perspective on womens economic and social contribution as well as on the barriers they encounter in accessing resources.

Environmental health in emergencies and disasters: A practical guide

Available Online

Adams, John

Wisner, Ben

The WHO Guide to sanitation in natural disasters (Assar, 1971) summarized the essential aspects of environmental health management in disasters. These included the provision of emergency water and sanitation services; the burial or cremation of the dead; vector and pest control; food hygiene; and the assessment of the danger of epidemics following emergencies and disasters, etc. Thirty years later these aspects remain essential, though the needs, challenges and opportunities are greater. The present book deals not only with emergency response, but also with measures designed to reduce the impact of disasters on environmental health infrastructure, such as water supply and sanitation facilities. It also aims to strengthen the ability of people to withstand the disruption of their accustomed infrastructure and systems for environmental health (e.g. shelter, water supply, sanitation, vector control etc.) and to recover rapidly.

Christmas Island National Park - Idependent scientific research shows that crazy ant bait does not acccumulate in Christmas Island's environment

Available Online

Cites independent study by CESAR Consultants confirms that Fipronil ant bait has not accumulated in the envrionment on Christmas Island for the control of yellow crazy ant.

Mobile data collection.

Available Online

Interviews with participants who learned a new tool on mobile data collection using a mobile app, KoBoToolbox - a free and open source software for collecting and managing data in resource-constrained environments. These interviews with regional participants from Samoa, Kiribati and Palau were taken during the South-South knowledge exchange and Inform capacity building workshop held at SPREP headquarters from 8 - 12 April 2019.

samoa

Description of the action - Pacific-EU waste management programme - PacWaste Plus.

Available Online

Poor waste management and inadequate control over highly polluting activities pose risks to the overall economic base of all Pacific African Caribbean Pacific (PACP) countries primarily reliant on tourism, agriculture and fishery for their revenue

Getting to know the PacWaste Plus programme.

Available Online

The European Union funded PacWaste Plus programme, will work with 15 countries in the Pacific region to improve and enhance waste management activities and the capacity of governments, industry and communities to manage waste to reduce the impact on human health and the environment.

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