The world’s first “Zoom Eradication” completed by Island Conservation

For the first time ever, remote technology was used to successfully complete an island eradication. The project took place on Wallis and Futuna Islands in the South Pacific. Island Conservation team members trained staff from the Wallis and Futuna Environment Service via Zoom, focusing on ground-based applications. The second phase will commence in the coming weeks, wherein aerial baiting will be completed by drones in areas restricted by dense vegetation. 

Background

Island Conservation was set to work with partners on an eradication in the Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands, when plans were interrupted by the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Island Restoration Specialist Baudouin des Monstiers was on route to the site when his flight was canceled due to a passenger having the first case of Covid-19 on New Caledonia. In the face of the subsequent pandemic-related travel restrictions, a new approach was necessary to keep the project moving forward. This led to the groundbreaking decision to remotely train local partners to remove invasive species from five islets

Lorikeets and Polynesian Starlings are among the threatened species expected to benefit from the project, along with sea turtles, red footed boobies, brown boobies, black noddies, brown noddies and white terns. Lessons from this project will inform future eradications – the use of remote technology to build local capacity will serve projects that otherwise would not be feasible due to travel costs and the scale of operation. In fact, Island Conservation has already expanded the use of Zoom training to a project in the Marshall Islands. 

The Wallis and Futuna Islands project earned the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme’s Pacific Invasive Species Battler of the Year Award

Funds for this effort were provided by PROTEGE.

Short summary:  Covid-19 Pandemic inspires new approaches to island conservation: The world’s first “Zoom eradication” conducted on Wallis and Futuna.