08 December 2022, Montreal Canada - A major project to remove rats from the uninhabited Late Island in the Kingdom of Tonga in 2023, which will be the largest rat eradication initiative undertaken in the Pacific region, has been highlighted at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Montreal Canada, as an example of Pacific countries taking the lead to restore island resilience.
The Late rat eradication project was spotlighted during a side event at COP15, where Pacific officials are working with delegates from 196 countries to seal the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to halt and reverse nature loss.
On Monday at the Partnership Pavilion, the SPREP Pacific Regional Invasive Species Management Support Service (PRISMSS) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) co-hosted the "Restoring Island Resilience" panel, which looked at how countries need to manage invasive species to increase the climate resilience of ecosystems and communities across the Pacific Islands region.
Hosted by Ms Sarah Wyatt of GEF, the panel featured Ms Atelaite Lupe Matoto, Tonga’s Director of Environment, Mr Stuart Chape, Director, Island and Ocean Ecosystems, Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and Mr Richard Griffiths, of Island Conservation.
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“Tonga is a small country but a large ocean state,” said Ms Matoto. “We have many uninhabited islands and our ocean is very critical to our existence. The ocean is very important to us for the quality of life. Tonga being a group of islands in the Pacific, we face devastating impacts from climate change, especially sea level rise, as with many other Pacific countries. We also struggle with adverse health impacts from climate change.”
But with nature based solutions, she said there are number of approaches Tonga is using to mitigate many of the adverse impacts of the climate crisis. The Late rat eradication project is one of them.
“Tonga has been trying to remove rats for over 40 years. Late is a remote island in the Vava’u Group in northern Tonga and we are really looking forward to this programme because we will see the benefits of the increase of the bird population.
“When you look at the guano of birds, there is a cycle where the runoff will provide nutrients to maintain coral health and in turn feed the fish, and then fish to the table, and so on. We have seen bird populations grow on our rat free islands and we’ve even seen turtles returning to nest on islands that are rat free.”
Ms Matoto recalled that several years back, they translocated one of their endemic birds, the malau or the Tongan megapode, to one of their rat free islands.
“Ten years after we found that there was a population that reproduced on the rat free island, but on Late we didn’t find any birds left. We have to remember these birds lay the eggs on volcanic islands so they depend on the warmth of the volcano to incubate. We have observed also that many of the rats are eating the eggs so this is why we are very excited about the Late project and the promise it holds for conservation, and we are quite keen to see it through.”
Mr Richard Griffiths works for Island Conservation based in New Zealand and leads a team of project managers and island restoration specialists whose focus is preventing extinctions by removing invasive species from islands. To date, they have successfully restored 65 islands worldwide, benefiting 1218 populations of 504 species and subspecies.
“The removal of rats from Late Island will cement Tonga’s place as a leader in the Pacific in the management of invasive species,” Mr Griffiths said. “Biodiversity is going to be transformed with the removal of rats, but it’s also going to be a really positive step for Tonga in terms of improving its resilience in the face of climate change.”
Late Island is an incredible place, known as the home for many endemic species in Tonga such as the Tongan whistler, friendly ground dove, flying foxes and more.
“The removal of rats from Late is going to allow the recovery of the island’s seabird populations. Late is a big island and currently its seabird population is extremely suppressed, a shadow of what was there previously, but the removal of rats will allow them to return to their former abundance and that is going to have a huge effect on the surrounding reefs. The nutrients that the seabirds bring from the ocean to the land make their way slowly back to the ocean where they nourish the reefs and improve the fish stocks, increase the size and number of fish, and that is going to be important for nearby communities.”
Invasive species are the leading driver of biodiversity loss in the Pacific. They have a significant impact on ecosystem resilience leading to a loss of ecosystem services and reducing their ability to adapt to climate change. Regional tracking of Pacific Island countries and territories has identified major gaps in on ground management action.
The PRISMSS is a coordinating mechanism designed to facilitate the scaling up of operational management of invasive species in the Pacific. The project brings together experts to provide support within the Pacific region with a focus on protection of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. The goal is to reduce the ecological and socio-economic impact of invasive species on ecosystems through the management or eradication of prioritised species and the protection of valued sites.
Mr Stuart Chape, Director of Island and Ocean Ecosystems at SPREP said invasive species are pervasive and they are increasing across the Pacific.
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“We have seen the cases with the rats but there is much more to it than that, we have increasing issues with introduced ant species that are spreading, the plants that are pests, plants that are threatening human development on Pacific countries, and also impacting on culture,” Mr Chape said.
In 2012, Samoa was hit by Cyclone Evan, a category 5 cyclone that claimed 17 lives. “Evan came in a very focused line of attack on Upolu. It crossed Upolu from south to north and came down the steep and very narrow catchment above Apia and a lot of the severity of the impact was the result of the fact that the catchment above the town, which looks like a natural forest, is predominantly shallow rooted invasive trees,” Mr Chape said.
“The large trees were uprooted by this powerful cyclone they were washed down, and filled, the narrow river running into town which then led to massive flooding around Lelata. This was an example of a natural event impacting on invasive species and urban development. It is likely that a healthy native forest in the catchment would have been more resilient to this event.”
Mr Chape also noted that invasive species can impact cultural values. For example, Taputapuātea UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape on Raiatea island in French Polynesia has been heavily impacted by invasive plants, rats, ants and to a lesser extent by feral pigs. The site has benefited from support and funding from the European Union funded PROTEGE programme and SPREP technical support to raise awareness of, and manage, invasive species in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
The SPREP Invasive Species Team works towards the goal of "Pacific people benefit from healthy and resilient island and ocean ecosystems" with the primary objective to significantly reduce the socio-economic and ecological impact of invasive species on land and water ecosystems and control or eradicate priority species.
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The Fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) is held in Montreal, Canada from 7 – 19 December 2022. Chaired by the Government of China, the CBD COP15 will result in a new Global Biodiversity Framework that will continue the 2020 Biodiversity Targets with the global goal of halting biodiversity loss.
Fourteen Pacific Islands countries are Party to the CBD. They are contributing to a unified One Pacific Voice on collective issues at COP15. The countries present in Montreal are the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Led by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), support to Pacific island countries has been implemented with technical input through the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation (PIRT), and includes a One Pacific approach involving support from the Office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner, and the Pacific Community at COP15 with financial assistance from the Government of Australia and the ACP MEA Phase 3 Project funded by the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States for the ACP countries.
For more information on the CBD COP15 please visit: https://www.cbd.int/conferences/2021-2022 or email [email protected]