LORD HOWE ISLAND - RODENT ERADICATION PROJECT - LESSONS LEARNED

The Lord Howe Island Rodent Eradication Project (REP) is now complete. The REP represents a world-class achievement, with Lord Howe Island being the largest permanently inhabited island to successfully remove rodents, delivering major ecological benefits for the Lord Howe Island Group World Heritage Property.

Comprehensive island-wide surveys in 2023 confirmed the project’s ultimate success, determining that rodents are almost certainly no longer present on Lord Howe Island.
A major insight from the REP is the critical importance of social factors in conservation. Early, genuine, and ongoing community engagement—alongside clear communication, robust planning, technical expertise, interdisciplinary teamwork, and rigorous monitoring—was essential to achieving lasting success.

The Lord Howe Island Board has produced a Lessons Learned report to support future eradication and restoration projects worldwide. It outlines key learnings across community engagement, planning, technical implementation, environmental management, biosecurity, incursion response, and monitoring.

You can read the full report on the Lord Howe Island Board website.

The Board thanks the Lord Howe Island community, LHIB and REP staff, volunteers, contractors, funding partners, and supporters whose dedication made this world-first achievement possible.
This website will not provide any further updates, for further information on the ongoing benefits of the REP or other exciting conservation projects on Lord Howe, please go to the Lord Howe Island Board website.

*Disclaimer: Please note that while the homepage reflects that the eradication program is now complete, the remaining website content relates to the active phase of the project and is no longer current – please refer to the Lord Howe Island Board website for current information on environmental programs.

NEWS AND UPDATES

April 10, 2018

REP Project Updates – Weekly Newsletter 6

Will a revised methodology jeopardise the success of the REP? The decision to delay implementation until 2019 was announced in the Householder last week (20/02/2018), but what does the revised methodology really mean? Without the APVMA licence in hand and not knowing what the approval conditions might be, we were unable to plan the final logistics to implement the baiting […]
April 10, 2018

REP Project Updates – Weekly Newsletter 5

Another Conservation Success for Lord Howe Island  On Wednesday the 7th of March 2018 the Lord Howe Island Board’s Environmental unit undertook the final monitoring survey for African Big Headed Ants (ABhA) at previously infested sites on the island. There have now been no ABhA detected anywhere on the island since 2015. This is a fantastic result as we are […]
April 9, 2018

REP Project Updates – Weekly Newsletter 4

Marine Edition How will the REP affect the fish? In this edition we would like to explore the impact of the REP on marine life on Lord Howe Island. Safety of the marine environment is a very important component of the REP. There have been more than 490 species of fish recorded in the region and 433 species of fish […]
April 9, 2018

REP Project Updates – Weekly Newsletter 3

Community Meeting Thank you to everyone who attended the REP Meeting on Thursday evening at the Community Hall. If you could not make it, or would like to see a copy of the presentation (with audio) please click here We had some great discussion and questions and hope we had some clear take away information; we look forward to working with you all over the […]
October 5, 2017

All systems go for Lord Howe Island rat eradication

An historic decision has been made for Australia’s World Heritage-listed Lord Howe Island, they are going to get rid of the rats.The decision was not taken lightly, it follows years of exhaustive research, environmental impact trials, human health assessments, economic cost and benefit analysis. “The project will be the single biggest conservation action to date to protect and enhance the […]