Chapter 15 Plant Invasions in Protected Areas of Tropical Pacific Islands, with Special Reference to Hawaii Lloyd L. Loope, R. Flint Hughes, and Jean-Yves Meyer Abstract Isolated tropical islands are notoriously vulnerable to plant invasions. Serious management for protection of native biodiversity in Hawaii began in the 1970s, arguably at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Concerted alien plant man- agement began there in the 1980s and has in a sense become a model for protected areas throughout Hawaii and Pacifc Island countries and territories. We review the relative successes of their strategies and touch upon how their experience has been applied elsewhere. Protected areas in Hawaii are fortunate in having relatively good resources for addressing plant invasions, but many invasions remain intractable, and invasions from outside the boundaries continue from a highly globalised society with a penchant for horticultural novelty. There are likely few efforts in most Pacifc Islands to combat alien plant invasions in protected areas, but such areas may often have fewer plant invasions as a result of their relative remoteness and/or socio-economic development status. The greatest current needs for protected areas in this region may be for establishment of yet more protected areas, for better resources to combat invasions in Pacifc Island countries and territories, for more effective control methods including biological control programme to contain L.L. Loope (retired) (*) Formerly: USGS Pacifc Island Ecosystems Research Center, Haleakala Field Station, Makawao (Maui), HI 96768, USA Current: 751 Pelenaka Place, Makawao, HI 96768, USA e-mail:
[email protected] R.F. Hughes Institute of Pacifc Islands Forestry, USDA Forest Service, 60 Nowelo Street, Hilo, HI 96720, USA e-mail:
[email protected] J.-Y.