Conservation silver bullet?
Tue Mar 22 2016 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Conservation silver bullet?
22 March 2016
An international team of 30 scientists has conducted the first-ever global study measuring the benefits of eradication of invasive mammals on islands and concludes it is one of the most effective tools in the conservation arsenal.
The study also concludes that New Zealand is a prime example of successful island eradication programmes that have seen critically endangered species brought back from the brink.
“New Zealand is a world leader in island eradication, and this study also shows that we are leading the world in saving species from extinction using this conservation tool,” says University of Auckland Senior Lecturer in Biology and Statistics Dr James Russell, co-author of the study.
“Half the species populations found to have benefited from mammal eradications come from New Zealand.”
Dr Russell led a group of researchers who also recently published a paper in the journal Conservation Biology highlighting the ethical importance of mammal eradications as a vital tool for island conservation.
It is estimated that $US21 billion is spent globally each year on conservation, of which a tiny fraction goes to island pest eradication. Looking at the overall costs and benefits, island eradication more than holds its own, says lead author of the study Dr Holly Jones, assistant professor in the biological sciences and the Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability and Energy at Northern Illinois University.
Positive outcomes from island eradication of invasive mammals included four species around the world that were re-classified with a lower threat level on the International Union of Conservation for Nature’s “Red List” of species. The list ranks the most critically threatened species around the world.
Examples of successful island pest eradication programmes in New Zealand include the New Zealand storm petrel, thought to be extinct for more than 150 years but recently found breeding on Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf after an intensive cat and rat eradication programme.
Dr Russell says people tend to think of pest eradication programmes as being on remote islands, well away from human populations but latest thinking is to consider mammal eradication on islands where humans also live.
”Saving New Zealand’s rarest species from extinction by eradicating introduced mammals is fantastic, but we shouldn’t restrict this type of conservation to uninhabited islands where the species are locked away from the public.
“It would be great if people could live on the very same islands as our most threatened species.”
The work is published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, http://pnas.org/content/early/2016/03/16/1521179113.full
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