Integrating invasive mammal eradications and biodiversity offsets for fisheries bycatch: conservation opportunities and challenges for seabirds and sea turtles

By C. Josh Donlan, Chris Wilcox - Biol Invasions, Biol Invasions

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The removal of invasive mammals from
islands is one of society’s most powerful tools for
preventing extinctions and restoring ecosystems.
Given the demonstrable high conservation impact
and return on investment of eradications, new
networks are needed to fully leverage invasive
mammal eradications programs for biodiversity conservation
at-large. There have been over 800 invasive
mammal eradications from islands, and emerging
innovations in technology and techniques suggest that
island area will soon no longer be the limiting factor
for removing invasive mammals from islands. Rather,
securing the necessary social and economic capital
will be one main challenge as practitioners target
larger and more biologically complex islands. With a
new alliance between conservation practitioners and
the fisheries sector, biodiversity offsets may be a
promising source of capital.