Over the past decade the challenges of managing invasive species on inhabited islands have clearly become limiting factors to scaling-up the area of invasive species eradications. Step-change is required to unleash the conservation and restoration potential of biodiversity on inhabited islands around the globe and avoid the pitfalls previous attempts to eradicate invasive species on inhabited islands have fallen into.

In recent decades Seychelles has accumulated extensive experience in the management of invasive species and other island restoration practices. Non-government organisations (NGOs), governmental, parastatal and private stakeholders have conducted successful programmes to control and eradicate invasive animals and plants, particularly on small islands of high biodiversity value. Biosecurity protocols have been implemented to prevent (re)infestations.

As the ?rst step towards the ecological restoration of its islands, Mexico has completed 60 eradications of invasive mammals thanks to a strong partnership between Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas, A.C. (GECI), the federal government, local ?shing communities, academia, and private donors. The removal of invasive mammals has led to the dramatic recovery of the islands’ ecosystems. On Guadalupe Island, after completing the goat eradication in 2007, the native vegetation started to recover.

Ramsey Island, 259 ha, is ca. 1 km off the Pembrokeshire coast, south-west Wales. The eradication of brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) was successfully completed in the winter 1999/2000 using a ground-based bait station operation. The pre-eradication survey using tape playback estimated the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) population to be 849 pairs. These surveys were repeated in 2007, 2012 and 2016. Each survey showed the Manx shearwater population had increased, reaching 4,796 pairs in 2016 with birds spreading from previously known breeding locations.