Skip to main content

Search the SPREP Catalogue

Refine Search Results

Tags / Keywords

Available Online

Tags / Keywords

Available Online

10 result(s) found.

Sort by

You searched for

  • Tags / Keywords strategic environmental assessment
    X
  • Tags / Keywords ornamental palm
    X
Strategic environmental assessment for invasive species management on inhabited islands.
BRB
Available Online

Russel, J.

,

Taylor, C.

2019
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.
Using expert Knowledge and Field Surveys to Guide Management of an Invasive Alien Palm in a Pacific Island Lowland Rainforest
Island and Ocean Ecosystems, BRB
Available Online

Boehmer, H.J.

,

Dyer, M.J.B.

,

Keppel, G.

,

Tuiwawa, M.

,

Vido, S.

,

Watling, D.

2019
Invasive alien ornamental plants are a global problem, especially on oceanic islands, and can have severe impacts on native biodiversity. Pinanga coronata, is an ornamental palm tree that can form mono-dominant stands in its native habitat and is widely cultivated throughout the tropics. Here we investigate the introduction, spread, impact and management of this invasive palm in the Fiji Islands, using extensive discussions with local experts and ?eld surveys. Pinanga coronata was introduced in the 1970s to the Colo-i-Suva area, eastern Viti Levu island, Fiji´s principal island, and has since become invasive in mahogany plantations and lowland rainforest. It has also been introduced and is becoming invasive on the western side of that island. However, the distribution of P. coronata remains geographically limited to the immediate vicinity of introduction sites but it is rapidly spreading. In each location, the species has formed mono-dominant stands in the understorey and appears to be displacing native plant species, as suggested by a negative correlation of its abundance with that of native tree ferns. This highlights the need for rapid control of P. coronata in Fiji. Local experts state management should involve manual removal of seedlings and saplings, killing of adult palms by injection of herbicide, and education and legislation to prevent the further spread of the species. Based on these recommendations and ?eld data, management actions to control P. coronata are proposed and steps to develop these into a management plan are discussed. Given P. coronata threatens native biodiversity in Fiji and has the potential to invade other rainforest ecosystems in the tropics, proposed management approaches are urgent and relevant for other tropical countries.