“Without island biosecurity pests will rapidly recolonize islands from which they have been eradicated, or worse still colonize islands for the first time. Only with a rigorous audited biosecurity programme can pest-free status be maintained. The gold standard in New Zealand is Nature Reserve islands like Antipodes Island, where quarantine occurs before, during and after arrival, surveillance occurs pre and post border, and incursion response strategies are in place. The New Zealand Department of Conservation operates a robust island biosecurity programme to protect their conservation investments, but it was reported in the news today that last year numbers spiked, including mice, rats, cats and stoats all making it out to islands. Stranger critters such as ferrets and even otters have reached New Zealand’s offshore islands in the past. Unlike the original pest eradications which cleared these islands, and were years in the planning, a response to an incursion must, as DOC manager Andy Cox points out, be as rapid as if a forest fire had broken out. Pest incursions are the biological equivalent of chemical spills, only the agent can keep reproducing.” Sourced through Scoop.it from: voices.nationalgeographic.com
GR: Biosecurity is another term for nature conservation. It is a relevant concern planet wide. This article focuses on invasive species, but there are more things people do that are affecting biosecurity on land and sea.
My lineup for the worst human impacts on nature are: Greenhouse gases (global warming, ocean acidification), habitat destruction (construction and farming), invasive species (includes disease), resource use (fishing, gathering, grazing, hunting, recreation, and water diversion), and toxic wastes (other than greenhouse gases). Behind them all looms the great instigator, human population growth.
