Conservation Projects in the South Pacific

In 1989 the kakerori (Rarotongan flycatcher) numbered only 29 birds. Since that time, an ongoing predator control programme and monitoring regime has seen the population increase.

This monarch species is endemic to just one island in the Marquesas Archipelago. In the last thirty years its population has declined rapidly – from thousands of birds in the 1980s to less than 20 birds today. Literally on the brink of extinction, conservation work to protect this species began in earnest in 2008.

The manumea, or tooth-billed pigeon, is endemic to Samoa where it is a flagship species and a priority species for conservation. It is believed to have declined from between 4,800 -7,200 in the mid-1980s to a few hundred by 2006.