Back to CONSERVATION BIOLOGY: WHERE NEXT?

Up to Table of Contents

Ahead to INTERNATIONAL SECTION AND SCB MEMBERSHIP NEWS

REPELLING INVADERS AND OTHER CHALLENGES FOR THE CHARLES DARWIN FOUNDATION AND THE GALAPAGOS NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

BY ROBERT BENSTED-SMITH

Though the pristine image of the Galapagos Islands has been tarnished in the past decade, the islands are still in far better shape than other archipelagos with a longer history of human habitation. They retain 95% of their original terrestrial species, large expanses of unspoiled volcanic wilderness and abundant coastal wildlife. To maintain them we must beat the alien species problem, which presents by far the greatest threat to the islands.

This is the central challenge for the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), which runs the Charles Darwin Research Station in Galapagos, and its close ally, the Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS). Responding to rapid expansion of the alien species problem, CDF and GNPS have in recent years scaled up their ability to tackle the invaders. Feral pigs, which have wreaked havoc on Santiago Island since the mid-1800s, were declared eradicated in May 2002. For 25 years control work had kept the population in check, but the goal of eradication from this 580 km2 island had proven beyond our abilities until 1997. In 1997, a new approach was adopted--training local hunters to use Global Positioning System technology, backed by analysis of data on pig distribution and search effort on a digitized satellite image of the island. Three years and over 70,000 hunter-hours later, hunters caught what proved, after 18 more months of systematic monitoring, to be the last pig. Santiago is the largest island in the world from which feral pigs have been eradicated, and GNPS and CDF have equally ambitious projects for eradication of goats from various islands.

As the work with large mammals advances, CDF is looking ahead to the post-eradication phase of ecological restoration and increasing efforts on research into more insidious invaders, such as fire ants (Wasmannia auropunctata). In 2001, CDF and GNPS started a program to eradicate fire ants from the near-pristine island of Marchena, which the ants had colonized some 12 years previously. By April 2002, after three treatments with Amdro, an insecticide specific to fire ants, all but 65 m² of the 22-hectare infested area was ant-free. As with the Santiago pigs, central to the eradication program is intensive monitoring, in this case using thousands of skewers covered in peanut butter (irresistible to ants!)

In January 2002, GNPS released, for the first time in Galapagos, a biological control on an insect pest, the cottony cushion scale (Icerya purchasi), which attacks some 60 native plant species. The decision to release the control agent, an Australian ladybug (Rodolia cardinalis), followed three years of research by CDF to assess the risks of undesired impacts on native species.

There are hundreds more introduced insect species, whilst introduced plants, of which over 600 species have already been recorded, now outnumber native plant species. A priority for CDF and GNPS is eradication of invasive plants that are still confined to just a few hectares, whilst controlling the worst of the widespread invaders and mitigating their impacts.

Successes in eradication and control must be complemented by reducing by one or two orders of magnitude the influx of new alien species. CDF is using an array of measures to erect effective barriers to alien species, including public awareness, education, training, collaboration with governmental agencies and stakeholder groups, establishing mechanisms for local participation, advising on legislation and regulations, and fund-raising. Many of these measures come together in a multi-institutional initiative to establish a quarantine inspection system for Galapagos. Though it is not yet fully effective in all ports and airports, the system is already achieving results, both in importation patterns and in enforcement--over 800 prohibited goods were intercepted in 2001.

By complementing research activities with engagement in a range of social and regulatory issues, all contributing to a coherent conservation strategy, CDF has become increasingly effective. A key factor enabling this advance has been the support of donors, notably the Friends of Galapagos organizations, which are CDF's core supporters, the United Nations Foundation, and the United Nations Development Program and Global Environment Facility. They have recognized that words about conservation and sustainable development in Galapagos are empty unless alien species--at the heart of conflicts between the two aims--are confronted on a large scale, backed with permanent funding in the form of an endowment fund.

The UNDP/GEF support to CDF is part of a larger government project, reflecting the fact the government of Ecuador is taking very seriously the introduced species problem. Indeed, the government has taken a US$10 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank for Galapagos conservation, including investment in infrastructure for quarantine inspection. [The bulk of the IADB loan is for the Galapagos Marine Reserve, created in 1998. Conservation of the marine ecosystem, so diverse and little studied in comparison with the terrestrial ecosystem, is the other half of CDF's work in the islands and has seen important advances, both scientific and in co-management with stakeholders. Contact CDF for more information on this work.] Ecuador also has taken some difficult steps that address root causes of the alien species problem, notably restricting migration to the islands and recognizing officially that human population levels must be stabilized if net introduction and dispersal of alien species are to be reduced to near zero and further transformation of the unique Galapagos ecosystem avoided. However, Ecuador has not yet fully grasped the nettle on some of the social and economic policy issues that such commitments imply, since the current balance of incentives tends to reduce emigration and stimulate immigration, both legal and illegal, to the islands. In this and other areas, such as sustainable agriculture, CDF needs allies with expertise complementary to its own. Such alliances will increase in importance and feasibility along with the complexity of conservation issues and diversity of actors in the archipelago.

CDF and WWF recently published on the web (www.darwinfoundation.org) a report describing both a vision of the potential for restoration of Galapagos biodiversity over the coming 50 years under optimal management and our best-guess projections of the loss of biodiversity under current trends. The choice between the two will depend heavily on how effectively the alien species problem is tackled, through control of introduced species, mitigation of their impacts, and implementation of an array of preventive measures that are socially just without shying away from what may at present be politically sensitive. With its comprehensive approach Galapagos is at the forefront of efforts to tackle this rapidly growing, global problem of invasive alien species.

Robert Bensted-Smith

rbs1@dial.pipex.com

The Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands received a 2002 SCB Distinguished Service Award for their extraordinary service to the Galapagos through research and protection programs and for working with the Galapagos National Park Service to promote scientifically based conservation management.

Back to CONSERVATION BIOLOGY: WHERE NEXT?

Up to Table of Contents

Ahead to INTERNATIONAL SECTION AND SCB MEMBERSHIP NEWS