Conservationists call for drastic action to rescue the Juan Fernández archipelago's biodiversity from alien invadersThe unique
wildlife of the island that inspired Robinson Crusoe is teetering on the edge of annihilation, according to the Chilean government, which has launched a last ditch attempt to save it.The Juan Fernández islands lie 600km out into the Pacific ocean and host an extraordinary number of unique plants and
animals which occur nowhere else in the world. The threat comes from alien invaders, including rats, goats and even brambles."This is a key challenge for Chile," says Miguel Stutzin Schottlander, head of the Chilean government's Department for the Protection of Natural Resources, speaking at a conference last week. "This is a starting point, bringing together stakeholders from civil society and the scientific community to set priorities. We are dealing with the threat of extinction of an important part of our heritage and it's a big responsibility.""This is one of the global jewels of biodiversity," says Peter Hodum, an ecologist from the University of Puget Sound, US, who leads the conservation organisation Oikonos, "Although it does not have the cache of the Galápagos, it is just as important."The Juan Fernández islands include the island on which the castaway Alexander Selkirk spent four lonely years. His story became Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, after whom the island is now named.From the windy look-out from where Selkirk scanned the horizon for
ships, conservationists dream of rescue too. "The important thing about this biodiversity is that it has a meaning for itself, but it's up to us to take care of it," says Ivan Julio Leiva Silva who, as director of the Juan Fernández national park, has been struggling with its problems for 15 years.The Juan Fernández firecrown – a tiny, ginger hummingbird found solely on Robinson Crusoe island, and one of the rarest birds in the world – is being forced from the last 250 hec ...
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