Biodiversity threatened by invasive species

Transcript

A recent meeting in Micronesia has heard of the increasing threats to biodiversity posed by the spread of invasive species.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme's, Dr Posa Skelton, told Jenny Meyer there are many examples of native species being devastated by imported invasive insects, animals and plants.

POSA SKELTON: The invasive species have been around the Pacific and have caused a lot of damage. Perhaps one of the serious cases is the brown tree snake that is causing massive devastation of bird species in Guam. I think a lot of the Guam native and endemic bird species have become extinct so they are no longer with us due to the brown tree snakes. Another aspect of economic development,  the brown tree snake has also caused a lot of damage on electricity plants in Guam, so those power outages have also had a very negative impact. So these are like the high profile cases but (there are) so many other cases. At the moment in the Federated States of Micronesia they are stuggling with the coconut termite. Now these coconut termites they prey on the coconut plant and what's happening is that along the coastal area a lot of the coconut trees are falling down, are collapsing, because their structural, the main plant, has been damaged by these little termites. A similar case also with the coconut rhinoceros beetle, that's also going through Guam at the moment as well as in Hawaii. So a lot of the coconut trees, you can see that you know, the tropical idyllic scenery of the Pacific of these swaying palms, a lot of the palms aren't swaying any more due to a lot of these diseases coming in, or a lot of these invasives coming in and impacting the biodiversity of the Pacific.

JENNY MEYER: Did you hear about any new invasive species that have caught people by surprise at all?

PS: Yeah absolutely. At the meeting that we had, the Micronesia Regional Invasive Species Council Meeting, it's an opportunity for all the jurisdictions to come together and provide an update of what new invasive species they've recorded. And so when we had that meeting Guam came up with at least another four new insect invasive species arriving. The black widow spider, that's another recent invasive species that's been found in Palau, found in Guam and I know it's also been found in Cook Islands as well. So you can see the commonality of these invasive species coming through. One more other invasive species that's really causing a big impact is the little fire ant. And that is such a tiny little ant but has a massive impact, especially a lot of Pacific communities who do backyard gardening, because they do get into your clothes and their bite is pretty, pretty strong and is painful.