Rewilding an Island
Caribbean Frigatebirds (credit: Birds Caribbean/Rhiannon Austin)
The small and uninhabited island of Redonda is located near Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean. It provides a fine case study in island restoration and showcases what is possible when well-planned ecological restoration efforts are enacted. The project's design and on-the-ground management were keys to this success while the island's tropical environment allowed for rapid recovery to occur with six, short years.
The project began when collaborations were established between the non-profit Environmental Awareness Group (EAG), Fauna & Flora a Caribbean wildlife organization, and local volunteers worked together. They helped to rewild a 'moonscape' on what was a denuded island to become the wildlife sanctuary that it is now. Some native species recovered from remnant survivors on Redonda; some seabirds re-established nesting rookeries by themselves; while other species were specifically re-introduced to their former habitat. The recovery of the island's vegetation, birds, and other wildlife was remarkable. Before and after drone views show the recovery progress over the six year timeline.
Rewilding Redonda Island, 2016-2023 (credit: Ed Marshall/Fauna & Flora, Robin Moore)
Islands are excellent landscapes for ecological restoration as they represent a contained land unit surrounded by water. Their degraded state typically began with the release, sometimes purposefully in the release of goats, pigs and rabbits for food, or unintentionally by the escape of rats, cats, and mosquitoes from ships that stopped there. The invasive critters adapted well to their new environments to become feral pests that devoured the island's plants, trees, birds, and other wildlife or brought diseases such as avian malaria to Hawai'i. For recovery to have any chance of success, these invaders must be removed. The process can require aerial sharp-shooters to cull the goats and pigs or species-specific viruses that can eliminate feral cats and rats or by the intentional release of sterile insects that can't reproduce in matings. Other islands from California's windy Channel Islands to Australia's sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island, show how rewilding is possible even in extreme environments when a restoration project is properly planned and executed.
With their success on Redonda, the EGA, Fauna & Flora, and their volunteers are now working to restore other islands degraded by similar invasive pests. WHB