Social Assessment of Inhabited Islands for Wildlife Management and Eradication

Abstract

Eradication of introduced predators from inhabited islands requires consideration of both technical and social feasibility. Historically, biologists have struggled to successfully engage in the social components of eradication planning. Island communities have unique features which require consideration in eradication planning. Social impact assessment is a powerful planning tool used widely outside of wildlife management. We outline the core components of a social impact assessment as it could be applied to eradication planning on inhabited islands. We summarise previous experience in social assessment and community engagement for introduced predator eradication on inhabited islands, and as an example develop a social profile for inhabited islands of the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand. We conclude that social impact assessment has great potential to improve eradication feasibility assessment, and should be routinely applied in eradication scoping on inhabited islands.