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1 page fact sheet by Perth Zoo, Australia, with brief description, diet, behavior and threats posed

4 page Fact sheet provides general information to background history, disribution, behavior, description of Cane Toad in different life stages, why they are invasive pest, and control actvities; The Australian Government cane toad commitment is providing more than $2 million over two years (2008-09 to 2009-10) to reduce the impacts of cane toads and to develop a national cane toad plan. Through these investments under the Caring for our County initiative, the Government is continuing to assist with funding for ground-control work, as well as research and development of sustainable control measures. In 2009-10, the Government provided over $1 million for community-based control activities and research to reduce cane toad numbers.

Invasive weeds are one of the most serious threats to biodiversity and sustainable development in the Pacific region. Biocontrol is likely to be the only feasible way of managing many widespread weeds, but is not always appropriate or successful. With so many weed species to tackle and inevitably limited resources, prioritising where to direct control efforts most effectively is of key importance. Landcare Research recently developed a framework for the Australian government that allows the best and worst weed targets for biocontrol to be identified. Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund and USDA Forest Service International Programs funding enabled this framework to be applied to weeds of the Pacific region.

Over the last four decades the eradication of rats from islands around New Zealand has moved from accidental eradication following the exploratory use of baits for rat control to carefully planned complex eradications of rats and cats (Feliscatus) on large islands.

Invasive species are widespread and can have devastating effects on biota, especially insular biota. Invasive species eradications are increasingly employed to promote island recovery to preinvasion states. However, it remains unclear if additional restoration actions may be required on islands that were once heavily reliant on seabird guano for ecosystem functions. Active seabird augmentation has been suggested as necessary to exact ecosystem recovery on contemporary timescales in some cases. I use two experiments on offshore islands in Cook Strait, New Zealand, to test the hypothesis that seabird restoration will restore island ecosystem functioning following invasive rodent removal. The first is a small-scale single-island fertilization experiment that simulates seabird recovery.

Islands house a majority of the world’s biodiversity and are thus critical for biodiversity conservation. Seabird nesting colonies provide nutrients that are integral to maintain island biodiversity and ecosystem function. Invasive rats destroy seabird colonies and thus the island ecosystems that depend on seabird-derived nutrients. After rat eradication, it is unclear how long ecosystem recovery may take, although some speculate on the order of centuries. I looked at ecosystem recovery along a chronosequence of islands that had 12–22 years to recover following rat eradication. I show that soil, plant, and spider marine-derived nitrogen levels and C:N ratios take mere decades to recover even after centuries-long rat invasion. Moreover, active seabird restoration could speed recovery even further, giving much hope to quickly conserve many endemic species on islands worldwide.

The Helping Islands Adapt workshop was held in Auckland, New Zealand between the 11th and 16th of April 2010 to support regional action against invasive species on islands, in order to preserve biodiversity and adapt to climate change. It arose from decisions under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) relating to invasive alien species and island biodiversity, and was hosted by the Government of New Zealand with support from a number of partner organisations and countries. The workshop focused on four major island regions: the Caribbean, Coral Triangle, Indian Ocean and Pacific, and involved participation by 82 people from 24 countries and territories, and 29 national, regional and international organisations (see participants list in Appendix 5). The workshop was specifically designed to allow for the maximum exchange of experience and support between representatives from diverse island regions working in invasive species management. It also included a field inspection of one of the Department of Conservation‘s invasive species management projects on Rangitoto Island in Auckland‘s Hauraki Gulf. The workshop built on efforts under the Cooperative Islands Initiative, a partnership launched at the World Summit for Sustainable Development and the CBD 6th Conference of the Parties in 2002. Its intended outputs had been agreed by the organiser‘s steering committee and set out as a 'road map‘ that was used to ensure clarity of the workshop‘s intended purpose, outputs and outcomes. An overview of the workshop, its sponsors, participants and conclusions was developed during the workshop and submitted to the 14th ?Subsidiary Body on Scientific Technical and Technological Advice (SBSSTA 14) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nairobi 10-21 May 2010. That report is provided in full in Appendix 5 to these proceedings.

The Brown Tree Snake (Boiga irregularis) has caused ecological and economic damage to Guam, and the snake has the potential to colonize other islands in the Paci c Ocean. This study quanti es the potential economic damage if the snake were translocated, established in the state of Hawai‘i, and causing damage at levels similar to those on Guam. Damages modeled included costs of medical treatments due to snakebites, snake-caused power outages, and decreased tourism resulting from effects of the snake. Damage caused by presence of the Brown Tree Snake on Guam was used as a guide to estimate potential economic damage to Hawai‘i from both medical- and power outage–related damage. To predict tourism impact, a survey was administered to Hawaiian tourists that identi ed tourist responses to potential effects of the Brown Tree Snake. These results were then used in an input-output model to predict damage to the state economy. Summing these damages resulted in an estimated total potential annual damage to Hawai‘i of between $593 million and $2.14 billion. This economic analysis provides a range of potential damages that policy makers can use in evaluation of future prevention and control programs.

Millions of people are crowded along the coastal fringes of continents, attracted by rich fertile land, transport connections, port access, coastal and deep-sea fishing, and recreational opportunities. In addition, significant populations live on oceanic islands with elevations of only a few meters. Many of the world's megacities, cities with populations of many millions, are situated at the coast, and new costal infrastructure developments worth billions of dollars are being undertaken in many countries. This coastal development has accelerated over the past 50 years, but it has taken place with an assumption that the stable sea levels of the past several millenia will continue; there has been little consideration of global sea-level rise. Global sea-level rise and its resultant impact on the coastal zone, one of the consequences of global climate change, has been identified as one of the major challenges facing humankind in the 21st century. Impacts on the environment, the economy, and societies in the coastal zone will likely be large.

Although the term biodiversity emerged from the pool of obscure jargon quite a few years ago, it is still enshrouded with significant ambiguity. At one extreme, some people use it as a loose synonym for nature. At the other extreme, some people reduce biodiversity to simplistic parameters, such as the number of species. Conservation organizations, both private and public, must navigate these waters with great care. They need to engage a pulic that loves nature as embodied in beautiful places and charming creatures - elk in a Yellowstone meadow or snow leopards on a Himalayan snowfield - while expounding the values of species and ecosystems that have "swamp," "rat," or "spider" in their titles. A the same time, to undertake their work in a systematic and rigorous manner, conservation organizations need to be able to quantify their goals and accomplishments. Some things are easy to measure, such as the areas of new reserves, but biodiversity writ large is not one of them.