NZ grants $1m to help protect Pacific species

By ANGELA GREGORY


The New Zealand Government is spending $1 million in the Pacific to help slow a frightening decline of indigenous plants and animals.

University of Auckland scientists have been granted the sum from NZ Aid, the Government's international aid and development agency, to help Pacific Island nations protect themselves from invasive species.

Science Professor Mick Clout, a vertebrate ecologist, said invasive plants, insects, birds, fish or mammals could have a detrimental impact on the biodiversity of island nations and damage the local populations' livelihood.

"There has been a horrendous biodiversity loss in the Pacific in the last century," Professor Clout said.

It was a particular concern in the Pacific as many species were endemic to the islands they were found on.

"When you lose a species it is gone from the world."

The work in the islands would be focused on improving locals' abilities to manage conservation and undertake environment protection work.

"There has been a relative lack of capacity.

"One or two people in a Government department have been responsible for a number of different aspects of environmental protection."

Professor Clout said borders were not as well controlled as in New Zealand or Australia.

"And it is not just between countries but within them given the movement between the many islands of a Pacific nation."

In Fiji a New Zealand team would help locals try to eradicate the cane frog from Viwa Island off the Viti Levu coast.

Large numbers of frogs, introduced into Fiji to help control insects in sugar cane, had invaded the habitat of the endemic ground frog of which only four populations remained.

In New Caledonia ways of controlling invasive mammals would be looked at.

Rats, pigs, cats and dogs threatened a range of native wildlife like the unusual kagu bird, which had virtually disappeared.

Professor Clout said species entered island nations by stowing away on ships and yachts and in some cases were deliberately introduced.

"With an increase in global trade and tourism, the situation is getting worse."

The funding aimed at building capacity in island nations such as Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, to enable them to develop successful biosecurity systems.

Professor Clout, who is also the chair of the invasive species specialist group of the World Conservation Union, says the projects would include developing strict enforcement measures at borders to prevent pests from entering and setting up systems to detect new species that had crossed the border. It would also involve training people in how to eradicate existing invasive species.

The work included developing a global database on invasive species which was part-funded by the United States Geological Survey.