Islands are home to some of the world’s most unique and vulnerable ecosystems—and also some of the most threatened by invasive species. Join us for a powerful and inspiring webinar exploring the impacts of invasive species on island biodiversity and the dedicated efforts to restore and protect these fragile environments.

We’ll hear from David Sischo with the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, who will share the vital work of the Snail Extinction Prevention Program, a conservation initiative focused on saving Hawaiʻi’s imperiled native tree snails from the brink of extinction in the face of invasive predators.

We’ll also be joined by Luciana Luna Mendoza, Director of Ecology at GECI (Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas), who will take us through the remarkable ecological restoration of Guadalupe Island. From the removal of feral goats to landscape-scale reforestation efforts beginning in 2014, her presentation will highlight both passive and active restoration strategies that have helped revive this critical island ecosystem.

Rounding out the panel is Jose Luis Herrera-Giraldo, Project Manager at Island Conservation, who serves as the Point of Contact for the organization’s activities in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Dominican Republic. Jose Luis will present on the effort to restore Savana Island, a vital habitat for the endangered Virgin Islands Tree Boa. Invasive black rats, which prey on the boa’s eggs, juveniles, and even adults, pose a serious threat to its survival. This project aims to eradicate invasive rats using cutting-edge aerial conservation techniques and restore the island as a safe refuge for native wildlife.

Saving Hawaiʻi’s Jewels Of The Forest – Widespread Land Snail Extinction Driven By Introduced Species
Presented by David R. Sischo
With over 750 described species in 13 families, the Hawaiian Islands were host to spectacular land snail diversity found nowhere else in the world, a true scientific spectacle of evolution. Unfortunately, the past century has witnessed accelerating range reductions and extinction of much of this incredible fauna, due largely to introduced predators. Recent catastrophic declines, observed in wild populations across islands, are heralding the end for many species. It is estimated that we are on the verge of losing 10 genera of land snail, comprising approximately 100 species, within the next 10 years. In a rush to prevent extinction, the Hawai’i Department of Land and Natural Resources – Snail Extinction Prevention Program (SEPP), and partners across the state, are “manning the lifeboats”. Here we will go over the novel techniques being used to save Hawaiʻi’s “Jewels of the Forest” including, predator-proof fencing, predator control, invasive species detection dogs, captive propagation, translocation, and reintroduction.

Saving the Guadalupe Island forest from extinction
Presented by Luciana Luna
Guadalupe Island, Mexico, located in the Eastern Pacific, is a priority site in terms of biodiversity conservation. It is a Protected Area, as well as an Important Bird Area and an Alliance for Zero Extinction site. Several vegetation communities, including forests, woodlands, and native grasslands, dominated the landscape; some of the representative species were the endemics Cupressus guadalupensis and Brahea edulis. Feral goats were introduced in the 19th century and had devastating consequences on the island’s flora: most of the plant communities disappeared, and at least 26 plant taxa became extinct or extirpated. The successful eradication of goats in 2005-2007 was the beginning of the island’s recovery. Yet, to achieve the island’s full recovery, active restoration actions were needed, including landscape restoration through reforestation, soil management, and fire risk prevention. The island’s fauna has also benefited from restoration, particularly invertebrates and landbirds such as the endemic Guadalupe Junco (Junco insularis; Endangered) that rely on forests for their survival.

David R. Sischo, Wildlife Biologist, Department of Land and Natural Resources
David Sischo is a Wildlife Biologist specializing in the conservation of Pacific Island land snails, one of the most extinction-prone fauna in the world. David is based in Honolulu Hawaiʻi, where he has coordinated the Snail Extinction Prevention Program (SEPP), for the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, since its founding in 2012. Known as the “Jewels of the Forest”, over 100 species of Hawaiian land snails, without conservation intervention, are facing oblivion within the next decade due to introduced species and climate change impacts. David and his team are on the very front lines of extinction working to build the capacity to intervene in and accommodate this onslaught. He oversees a multitude of partnership conservation and research projects across the state including, rare species monitoring, surveys, translocations and reintroductions, threat abatement, strategic planning, and a land snail captive-rearing program that maintains over 40 of the Hawaiian Island’s rarest species. David received his Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Evolution from California State University Fresno, and his Master’s and PhD in Zoology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Luciana Luna is a conservation biologist with a PhD in Biological Sciences. For over two decades, Luciana has been dedicated to active conservation work on Guadalupe Island, a unique 247 km2 volcanic island in the Mexican Pacific, located 260 km off mainland México. There she was involved in the feral goat eradication, a 3-year program that successfully concluded in 2007. She has witnessed and measured the remarkable recovery of Guadalupe’s flora after the goats were gone, particularly of the endemic cypress, pine and palm, as well as of many coastal sage scrub and chaparral species, and participated in the active restoration actions to recover the original vegetation communities.

Jose Luis Herrera-Giraldo, Project Manager, Island Conservation
Jose Luis earned a MS in biology from the University of Puerto Rico, conducting research with the amphibians and reptiles composition in the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge at Vieques Island in Puerto Rico. Before joining IC in 2011, Jose Luis held various positions related to natural resources conservation, including working with Envirosurvey Inc, a conservation and wildlife organization based in Puerto Rico, conducting forest and wildlife assessments and outreach campaigns promoting conservation practices in partnership with state and federal governmental agencies. For two years he worked with to manage sea turtle nesting habitat and hatchlings and has conducted additional ecological work with amphibian and reptile species as a private consultant or volunteer. From 2009 to 2010, Jose Luis started working on Desecheo Island with the UCSC Conservation Measures Program, doing surveys for a single-island endemic gecko and assisting the ecosystem restoration project on Desecheo through the removal of invasive predators. At Island Conservation, he supports and leads various restoration work on islands such as Desecheo, Juan Fernández, Cabritos, Alto Velo, Antipodes and Mona for the benefits of threatened and unique species. Jose Luis is currently serving as the Point of Contact for the Island Conservation’s activities in Puerto Rico, the U.S Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic.