Vol 3 Land Resource Inventory Report - Department of Environment ...

Forests of Taveuni The upland forest of Taveuni is the only area in the World
where M. acrodonta is known to occur.
Vatuvara Island Cave with hundreds of E. semicaudata individuals; the species
is declining in numbers.
Lau group Quite a few islands of the Lau group still have populations of E.
semicaudata. In Fiji they are the best hope for this species,
Tatuba, Wailotua,
Wainibuku caves, Kalabo
caves and Viti Levu
(Source: Palmeirim et al. 2005)
which is declining dramatically throughout the Pacific.
3.9.3 TERRESTRIAL SNAILS AND SLUGS OF FIJI
These caves harbour large colonies of N. macdonaldi. They are
its only known roosts in Fiji and hold much of the global
population of this species.
The Islands of Fiji form part of the Micronesia-Polynesia biodiversity hotspot, which is
recognised by the Conservation International as one of 25 key locations for conserving the
world‘s biodiversity. A large proportion of the terrestrial fauna in this hotspot is endemic
(unique occurrence of species within a limited geographic area) but the distribution and status
of much of this unique fauna is poorly documented, particularly for the enormously diverse
invertebrate groups. This lack of basic information severely limits our ability to conserve it
and from this perspective alone documenting Fiji‘s terrestrial biodiversity resources are of
global conservation importance.
Globally, non-marine molluscs are in decline and the unique Pacific Island fauna is
particularly threatened (Lydeard et al. 2004). Terrestrial mollusc research projects undertaken
in Hawaii, Samoa, New Caledonia and French Polynesia have found very high levels of
endemism but also alarmingly, many endemics are now under considerable threat from
human development and introduced species (Hadfield 1986; Cowie 2000; Bouchet and
Abdou, 2003; Brescia et al. 2008). Sadly despite this knowledge the diverse native and
endemic terrestrial mollusc fauna of Fiji appears to be moving in a similar direction.
Ecologically and historically, the Fijian fauna is primarily connected to areas of native forest,
a fact vital to understanding how this unique fauna can be conserved only by protection of
relatively large areas of native vegetation not only from land clearing but also from invasive
species.
Over the last 100 years the Fijian land snail fauna has been investigated by a very large
number of overseas visitors (Barker, 2005) but basic identification and taxonomic
information about them is quite difficult to locate and obtain. There is a vital need for more
research in the areas of taxonomy and natural history, plus development of local access to
information, user friendly identification tools to aid quick identification of highly threatened
endemic species and high risk introduced species that may pose considerable threats to
agricultural trade (crop pests) and human health (disease vectors).
The terrestrial gastropod mollusc fauna of Fiji is rich and diverse consisting of at least 29
families, 70 genera and 225 species of which 37 are known to be undescribed (Table 3.9).
There are undoubtedly, undiscovered species plus according to Barker (2005) an additional
11 recorded species are of unconfirmed status (Table 3.10). Based on the unpublished report
of Barker (2005) several locations (e. g. Rotuma and many of the islands in the Lau Group)
are obviously significant with respect to species conservation using the recent criteria (single
species present within a taxon) adopted by Conservation International‘s Critical Ecosystem
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