Abstract
The citation BWoods andMoriarty 2001^ that appears on page 1 and page 2 of the original publication has beenmisprinted as BWoods 2999.^ The sentences should read: Page 1, second column, lines 14–18: BThis allows for definitions of species as more or less native than other species, and for the recognition of changes over time such that a species may adapt or evolve in a process of ‘naturalisation’ in its new habitat from alien to native (Woods and Moriarty 2001: 176).^ Page 2, first column, lines 3–6: BConsequently, the removal of invasive species might facilitate invasion by other more aggressive alien species and may harm native wildlife that utilises alien hosts (Woods and Moriarty 2001: 183).^ The sentence on page 3, second column, lines 25–29 contains erroneously inserted B260.^ The sentence should read: BIn 2005, the US Navy reported on rat and cat control programmes at the military base on Diego Garcia, and proposed extending rat eradication measures to the entire island (US Naval Facilities Engineering Command (Pacific Division) 2005: Appendix I-2).^ The sentence on page 3, second column, lines 2–5 contains misprinted phrase Bcoconcxut crab.^ The sentence should read: BChagos islanders ate coconut crabs and the meat and eggs of green sea turtles and a range of ground-nesting birds, and green sea turtles and hawksbill turtles were exported to Mauritius for their meat and shells respectively (Frazier 1980: 343).^ The Publisher regrets the mistakes.
Highlights
Restoration ecology can broadly be defined as the theory and practice of attempting to reverse anthropogenic damage to natural ecosystems
There may be geographical, spatial, temporal, logical, or evidential challenges to identifying a species according to its natural range (Head and Muir 2004: 201–202; Warren 2007: 431–432; Woods and Moriarty 2001: 176)
To what extent is the concept of a natural range influenced by non-natural, historical, national boundaries (Olwig 2003)? Spatially, what is the relevant scale, and what are the implications of variation within a supposed site (Warren 2007: 432)? Temporally, how can determination of the relevant historical period avoid being arbitrary (Warren 2007: 431)? Logically, how should one classify a species if it was once present in an area, wiped out
Summary
Offering an anthropological critique of biodiversity discourses, I explore the tensions in an ecological restoration project on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago, where the species classified by conservationists as invasive has economic, historical, and socio-cultural significance for the displaced former inhabitants of the islands. Chagos scientists have reported that such practices resulted in diminished populations of these species by the middle of the twentieth century, but that – four decades after the depopulation of the islands – monitoring and the deterrence of poaching in the vicinity of the US military base have resulted in some of the world’s largest concentrations of hawksbill turtle, red-footed booby, and coconut crab at various sites on Diego Garcia (Sheppard et al 2012). Trees including Cocos nucifera and Casuarina equisetifolia apparently threaten the (re) growth of hardwoods (such as Baringtonia asiatica and Pisonia grandis) that provide nesting sites to breeding seabirds (Sheppard et al 2012)
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