Management plan readied for beaver eradication in Patagonia

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Impacted landscape in Patagonia. Photo: Gef Castor.Impacted landscape in Patagonia. Photo: Gef Castor. 

 
By Antonia González
Translation by Patrick Nixon
 
In 1946, the Argentine navy introduced 10 pairs of beavers from Canada on Tierra del Fuego, a 28,473 square miles (73,746 square km) island at the southernmost tip of South America about two-thirds of which is Chilean and one-third Argentine.
 
Their innocent aim was to spur a local fur industry. A seemingly sound business idea, but they did not consider the potential effects of releasing the exotic beavers in a non-native habitat.
 
Since the arrival of this invasive species, beavers felling trees, one of the most damaging activities of this animal, has led to the destruction and flooding of large expanses of native forest, as well as of peatlands and grasslands. The species has not only caused the loss of more than 76,000 acres (31,000 hectares) of forest – an area about twice the size of the city of Buenos Aires – but also disrupting watercourses and the hydrological cycle in affected basins. One study found more than 90 percent of the rivers and streams on the Chilean half of the Tierra del Fuego have been affected. 
 
Eventually, the world helped come to the rescue via the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Beaver Project, which has been working for nearly five years to control the advance of this species, which is already increasingly being found to the north on the continent in Chile's Magallanes region. Its purpose is to protect and conserve the forests and other native ecosystems that are currently affected by the beaver in these areas. There are currently an estimated 65,000 to 110,000 individuals in the Fuegian archipelago, according to the GEF Beaver Project.
 
 
In March of this year evidence of beaver destruction was found on Riesco Island in Magallanes. In March of this year evidence of beaver destruction was found on Riesco Island in Magallanes.
 
 
The GEF Beaver Project is carried out by Chile’s environment ministry and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Strategic partners and co-executing agencies are Chile’s Livestock and Agricultural Service (SAG), the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
 
Patagon Journal recently spoke with Felipe Guerra, national coordinator of the GEF Beaver Project and environmental biologist at the University of Chile, to learn more about the management plan they are preparing to implement for beaver control in Patagonia. Guerra says the plan about to launch determines priority areas in which active control is needed and establishes three fundamental components.
 
“The first (component) is to maintain a governance structure in which all actors involved are efficiently coordinated to execute the plan,” he said. The main public institutions involved are the regional government, the Chilean environmental ministry as plan leader, Chile’s Livestock and Agricultural Service, CONAF (Chile’s national forest and park service), the national property ministry, and the Chilean armed forces.
 
Under this governance committee, the board of directors will meet with the private sector and civil society organizations to establish mechanisms by which local residents can propose initiatives to help with the implementation of this management plan. “The board of directors will manage implementation of the plan over 20 years, initially. The strategy is based on adaptive management within an open standards concept,” he said.
 
 
In May, the technical team of the GEF Castor project, together with professionals from the Ministry of the Environment, Conaf, Sag and WCS, sailed the fjords and channels south of the Brunkswick Peninsula to prospect for the presence of the species in the area.In May, the technical team of the GEF Castor project, together with professionals from the Ministry of the Environment, Conaf, Sag and WCS, sailed the fjords and channels south of the Brunkswick Peninsula to prospect for the presence of the species in the area.
 
 
The second component is implementation, focused on control and eradication of beavers in priority areas. “In those areas the early warning system comes into action, allowing us to localize beaver sites and possible invasion routes,” Guerra explains. This tool has a repository of historical information on the beaver in the Magallanes region, which is complemented with satellite monitoring that allows detecting changes in the landscape caused by the beaver, and with the dispersion model that will project possible migratory routes.
 
"Regarding beaver hunting, the measures that are in place in the Magallanes region are approved by different actors, related to animal welfare to guarantee the minimum suffering of the animal, they are international standards that are established for this type of actions", explained Guerra.
 
Lastly, the third component is education and communication in the territory. Guerra explains that the community must evaluate the ecosystem before deciding on mere eradication of the species. "Capture methods and the framework for eradication must comply with all ethical standards and that communication must be very transparent," he adds.
 

"Capture methods and the framework for eradication must comply with all ethical standards and that communication must be very transparent."

 
The management plan will be submitted to Chile's environmental authorities within the next few weeks. The next step, says Guerra, if it is approved, is to get approval from the regional government to allow it to become public regional policy, which in turn will open the door to increased financial support for combating invasive beavers in southern Chilean Patagonia.
 
 
Field visit, binational meeting, Ushuaia, Argentina, 2022.Field visit, binational meeting, Ushuaia, Argentina, 2022.
 
 
Binational agreement
Chile and Argentina are also working jointly to define strategies to contain beaver damage in Patagonia. In May, project leaders from both countries met in Ushuaia, Argentina, to reaffirm their commitment to work together and formalize the coordinated work between the different actors involved in the implementation of plans for restoring affected ecosystems.
 
Guerra, who attended as representative of Chile and the GEF Beaver Project, emphasized that communication between the two countries is critical and, indeed, the key toward success. “This meeting was held, precisely, to share experiences, review the lessons learned in each country and advance in the joint strategy for beaver management.”

 

 

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