Three New Zealand islands will join an international initiative to remove invasive species and restore native wildlife.
With the addition of Maukahuka (Auckland) Island, Rakiura (Stewart) Island and Chatham Island, the Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC) will now have 20 ongoing projects aimed at restoring and rewilding 40 globally significant island-ocean ecosystems by 2030.
“New Zealand’s three IOCC island restoration projects will be the largest and most challenging our country has ever attempted,” New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) national eradication manager Stephen Horn told Mongabay by email. He added that each island in the new initiative is 4-15 times larger than the biggest island in the country that has been previously cleared of invasives.
“Their scale, remoteness from the mainland, difficult terrain, wild weather, multiple animal pest species, and the presence of human settlements for two of the three islands pose unique challenges,” Horn added.
Maukahuka Island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to more than 500 native plant and animal species, including the endangered Gibson’s albatross(Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni), New Zealand sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri) and a rare penguin, called hoiho (Megadyptes antipodes). But with the introduction of mice, feral cats and pigs, 32 native bird species are no longer present on the island.
Rakiura Aotearoa New Zealand’s third-largest island, is also home to the tokoeka or brown kiwi (Apteryx australis) and the critically endangered kākāpō(Strigops habroptilus), the world’s only flightless parrot, among many other unique native species. They are all threatened by rats, feral cats, hedgehogs and possums.
Meanwhile, Chatham Island has more than 300 threatened or at-risk plant and animal species. Like the other islands, it has been overrun by possums, rats and feral cats.
Horn said the initiative will use innovative tools and technologies such as trail cameras and artificial intelligence to identify pests.
“Eradication experts will continue to sweep the island with conservation dogs, camera monitoring networks, tracking tunnels, and traps over years before declaring the island free of pests,” he said.
The initiative, led by Island Conservation, Rewild and UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, brings together the New Zealand government, Māori and Moriori Indigenous communities as well as local organizations to restore what the DOC calls “living remnants of a prehistoric world” and to strengthen climate resilience.
In a press release, Island Conservation explained that restoring islands is one of the most effective ways of protecting biodiversity. The water surrounding islands free from invasive species have more robust seabird populations, 50% more fish biomass and can recover four times faster from bleaching events, according to Island Conservation. Moreover, when seabirds return to previously infested islands, they restore the flow of nutrients between land and sea with their guano.
The New Zealand government has invested $54 million of the $202 million needed for the projects while the New Zealand Nature Fund spearheads fundraising efforts.
Banner image of a white-capped albatross (Thalassarche cauta steadi) on Maukahuka/Auckland Island by Jake Osborne.
