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As countries across the Pacific grow concerned about the dwindling of,and damage to,resources in the world’s oceans, there is an effort to develop plans to sustainably integrate human use and marine conservation. Marine spatial planning (MSP) is a practical way of organising the human use of marine areas to balance the demands of human activities with the need to protect the health of the ecosystems on which those activities depend.

The spread of invasive non-native species presents one of the greatest threats to biodiversity globally: invasive species are the primary driver of biodiversity loss on islands and the second largest everywhere else (CBD ; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Many of the UK’s island ecosystems have been damaged by the arrival and establishment of invasive non-native species. Introduced predators have caused particularly catastrophic damage to many species of waders and seabirds, undoubtedly causing numerous extirpations as well as contributing to ongoing declines(Stanbury et al. 2017). Removing invasive vertebrates from islands is an important conservation tool to protect and restore island ecosystems and to prevent further declines and losses of native species. The UK Rodent Eradication Best Practice Toolkit is intended as an advisory resource, providing a systematic approach for planning and implementing rodent eradications and biosecurity in the UK. It provides technical advice on specific methods to be used in the UK, as well as an eradication project management framework which is applicable to projects everywhere. This Best Practice Toolkit has been compiled, and contributed to, by several UK governmental and non-governmental organisations involved in island restoration, these being: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), GB Non-Native Species Secretariat (GB NNSS), Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), National Trust, National Trust for Scotland, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales (NRW), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) and the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust. The Toolkit has also received input from Wildlife Management International Ltd (WMIL), and draws heavily from the documentation produced by WMIL for various rat eradication projects undertaken in the UK. The use of the UK Rodent Eradication Best Practice Toolkit aims to give UK organisations and practitioners the ability to embark on invasive rodent management projects with greater confidence of achieving the desired island restoration goals. For more information or to provide feedback on this resource, please contact Sophie Thomas Sophie.Thomas@rspb.org.uk .

Rodents are a key pest to agricultural and rural island communities of the South Pacific, but there is limited information of their impact on the crops and livelihoods of small-scale farmers. The rodent pest community is known, but the type and scales of damage to different crops on different islands are unknown. Knowledge about rodent pest management in other geographical regions may not be directly transferable to the Pacific region. Many studies on islands have largely focussed on the eradication of rodents from uninhabited islands for conservation benefits. These broadscale eradication efforts are unlikely to translate to inhabited islands because of complex social and agricultural issues. The livelihoods, culture and customs of poor small-scale farmers in the South Pacific have a large bearing on the current management of rodents. The aim of the present review was to describe the rodent problems, impacts and management of rodents on South Pacific islands, and identify gaps for further research. We compared and contrasted two case studies. The situation in Papua New Guinea is emergent as several introduced rodent species are actively invading new areas with wide-ranging implications for human livelihoods and conservation. In Vanuatu, we show how rodent damage on cocoa plantations can be reduced by good orchard hygiene through pruning and weeding, which also has benefits for the management of black pod disease. We conclude that (1) damage levels are unknown and unreported, (2) the impacts on human health are unknown, (3) the relationships between the pest species and their food sources, breeding and movements are not known, and (4) the situation in Papua New Guinea may represent an emergent crisis that warrants further investigation. In addition, there is a need for greater understanding of the invasive history of pest rodents, so as to integrate biological information with management strategies. Ecologically based rodent management can be achieved on Pacific Islands, but only after significant well funded large-scale projects are established and rodent ecologists are trained. We can learn from experiences from other locations such as Southeast Asia to guide the way.

Retrouvez le site de l’initiative largement mis à jour et notamment une description des enjeux et de l’initiative, les actualités, bases de données et ressources. Vous y trouverez également une page et la base de données spécifiques à la Nouvelle-Calédonie.

Suite à la soutenance de thèse effectuée en juillet 2018 à l’Université de Massey, le manuscrit de Martin Thibault, intitulé « Le bulbul à ventre rouge (Pycnonotus cafer): dynamique d’invasion et impacts écologiques d’un oiseau introduit en Nouvelle Calédonie. Invasive alien species are a major cause of biodiversity loss globally, especially on islands where high species richness and levels of endemism accentuate their impacts. Various international institutions have constructed lists of the most harmful invasive species to help environment managers at both global and local scales to prioritize their efforts. The red-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer) is a passerine bird species considered among the three worst invasive birds on the planet. This species is currently spreading over the tropical archipelago of New Caledonia, one of the 36 world biodiversity hotspots. This dissertation presents the findings of a PhD study conducted in New Caledonia with two objectives: 1) to describe this introduced population, and 2) to evaluate the threats from its dispersal using both existing knowledge and new in-situ and ex-situ data and a variety of analysis techniques. From the literature, I identified three key impacts explaining the species’ status: i) damage to agricultural crops, ii) noxious seed dispersal, and iii) competition with other avifauna. I estimated the local population size (approx. 140,000 individuals), its habitat use (inhabited areas), its density along an urbanization gradient (30-120 ind/km2), and I produced lists of consumed plant and animal species and identified a colour preference in the foraging strategy of the red-vented bulbul. Exploration of each impact category revealed i) substantial losses on fruit production (18% of tomato production), ii) impact on the abundance of nine native bird species that may be driving a spatial reassembly of the community, and iii) a short distance dispersal (77-92 m) that could promote the dispersal of introduced plant species at the expense of endemic species. Finally, through modelling, I estimated the climatic niche of the species at a global scale and identified that most island territories as suitable for the establishment of this invasive bird species. Regardless of whether the red-vented bulbul deserves its status as “world worst” species, quantitative impact assessments in its alien range such as the studies presented here are needed to prevent the dispersal and harmful impacts of this species on human activities and sensitive ecosystems. Implications for management are discussed.

BBC website news article - Flood hit South Indian state of Kerala 11 people died of leptospirosis; After floods expect to see water-borne diseases like cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea, hepatitis and rat fever

CABI website datasheet for water hyacinth

CABI website datasheet for Coffee berry borer