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Breeding success of 5 Cory’s shearwater Calonectris diomedea sub-colonies of Lavezzu Island (Lavezzi Archipelago, Corsica) was checked annually for 25 consecutive years from 1979 to 2004. Between 1989 and 1994, 4 ship rat Rattus rattus controls were performed in several subcolonies. In November 2000, rats were eradicated from Lavezzu Island and its 16 peripheral islets (85 ha) using traps then toxic baits. We compare cost (number of person-hours required in the field) and benefit (Cory’s shearwater breeding success) of control and eradication. The average breeding success doubled when rats were controlled or eradicated (0.82) compared to the situation without rat management (0.45). Moreover, the average breeding success after eradication (0.86) was significantly (11%) higher than after rat controls (0.75). Furthermore, the great variation in breeding success recorded among sub-colonies both with and without rat control declined dramatically after eradication, suggesting that rats had a major impact on breeding success. The estimated effort needed to perform eradication and checking of the permanent bait-station system during the year following eradication was 1360 person-hours. In contrast, rat control was estimated to require 240 or 1440 person-hours per year when implemented by trained and untrained staff, respectively. Within 6 yr, eradication cost is lower than control cost performed by untrained staff and confers several ecological advantages on more ecosystem components than Cory’s shearwater alone. Improved eradication tools such as hand or aerial broadcasting of toxic baits instead of the fairly labour-intensive eradication strategy we used would dramatically increase the economic advantage of eradication vs. control. Therefore, when feasible, we recommend eradication rather than control of non-native rat populations. Nevertheless, control remains a useful management tool when eradication is not practicable.

For Pacific SIDS, the need for adaptation to climate change has become increasingly urgent. Long-term climate change, including the increasing frequency and severity of extreme events such as high rainfall, droughts, tropical cyclones, and storm surges are affecting the lives and livelihoods of people in PICs. Coupled with non-climate drivers, such as overexploitation of resources, increasing urbanization and population increase, development in the region is increasingly undermined. For the low lying atolls, the likely economic disruption from climate change pressures could be catastrophic, even to the extent of requiring population relocation to other islands or adding numbers to the Pacific diaspora, with the subsequent social and cultural disruption having unknown proportions. Failure to reduce vulnerability could also result in loss of opportunities to manage risks in the future when the impacts may be greater and time to consider options limited.

19th SPREP Meeting of Officials, 08-11 September 2008, Pohnpei, FSM : Additional Working papers|Review of support staff salary movements : agenda item 6.4|SPREP support staff remuneration review 2008: terms of reference|SPREP market survey of support staff salaries and terms & conditions in Samoa, July 2008|Annual Reference market data review (Professional staff) : agenda item 6.5|Council of Regional Organisations: annual comparison of reference markets 2008 update|Genetic resources in Pacific region: update on discussion paper from SPREP 2007: agenda item 8.4. paper presented by Australia|Regional Institutional Framework (RIF) Review: agenda item 10.3|Forum Communique: Regional Institutional framework review|Regional Institutional Framework: stage 2 task force, Nukualofa Tonga 2007|Regional Institutional framework- stage 2 RIF task force (June) meeting, PIFS, Suva Fiji 14 June 2007: Chairperson's report - meeting outcomes|The pathway towards quality of service from Pacific Regionalism, September 2007 RIF 2 project team : annex 1|38th Pacific Islands forum, Fiji 24-25 October 2006: Forum communique: Regional Institutional framework review|Reforming the Pacific Regional Institutional Framework, August 2006|39th Pacific Islands Forum, Alofi, Niue 19-20 August 2008: Forum