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Coordinating the ¿ght against invasive alien species: 8 years of operational planning in Reunion Island

Dievart A., Schartz C., Bracco I., Amy E., Ardon B., Armand P., Caceres S., Lavergne C., Payet N., Lequette B., Manikom R., Rouget M., Salamolard M., Strasberg D., Triolo J.. 2019. In : Flores Olivier (ed.), Ah-Peng Claudine (ed.), Wilding Nicholas (ed.). Book of abstracts posters of the third international conference on Island ecology, evolution and conservation. Saint-Denis : Université de la Réunion, p. 328-329. International conference on Island ecology, evolution and conservation. 3, 2019-07-08/2019-07-13, Saint-Denis (Réunion).

Invasive alien species (IAS) are acknowledged as one of the major causes of biodiversity loss world-wide, especially in oceanic islands. In Reunion Island, pristine natural habitats cover 30% of the territory, the largest area of intact habitats in the Mascarene Archipelago. To ensure the protection of these habitats and rare species, a national park was establised in 2007, protecting 42% of the is-land's area, and has since been included on UNESCO's 2010 World Heritage List. To tackle biological invasions, an IAS Strategy was developed in Reunion Island in 2010 and implemented in two Opera-tional Control Plans for Invasive Species (2010-2013 and 2014-2017). Here, we used semi-structured interviews, SWOT analyses, workshops and all relevant data and references about biological invasions in Reunion Island to assess the e¿ciency of these plans. Costs over 8 years amounted to e 20 million and were mainly allocated to control the expansion of IAS. We identi¿ed the most important inva-sive species in terrestrial biomes and developed an online public detection platform to enable prompt, practical responses to new invasions on the island. Hence, early detection of the house crow (Corvus splendens) and the African herb dream (Entada rheedii) have allowed their eradication. The e¿orts of various stakeholders (public institutions, research organizations, universities, associations) is at the heart of the control of IAS in Reunion Island. The diversity of stakeholders allowed work to take place simultaneously on several fronts. Despite signi¿cant spending for the island and a strong local e¿ort, biological invasions appear to have increased in many protected areas, causing UNESCO World Heritage to drop their conservation status for the island in 2017. Our ¿ndings suggest that the IAS Strategy in Reunion Island should be substantially modi¿ed if impacts are to be e¿ectively mitigated. Rather than attempting to operate on all species and in all areas, prioritizing both species a

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