Short abstract

The presentation examines the performative effect of seeking zero pests in eradication projects and how this shapes how pests are framed and how pest eradication projects are designed, communicated and implemented, including how technology is both developed and deployed.

Long abstract

New Zealand accounts for nearly 25% of the world’s uninhabited island pest eradication attempts. Buoyed by successes from these uninhabited island eradications, biologists are now seeking to undertake pest eradications at scale on inhabited islands. Indeed in New Zealand, ‘predator free’ is a national vision with the aim for the country to be free of all rats, stoats, possums and feral cats by 2050. New Zealand is now a leading exporter of mammalian eradication knowledge, technologies and operational know-how to governments and NGOs across the world who are directing substantial funds towards landscape-scale invasive species eradication.

To be ‘Pest-Free’ requires a biological endpoint of zero target pests in a specific location over a specified timeframe. When eradication is sought and funded, the focus is on pest kills and an outcome of pest suppression only, is typically deemed a project failure by funders. This presentation draws from examples from around the world to examine how the current eradication paradigm with the biological end point of zero pests, shapes how pests are framed and how pest eradication projects are designed, communicated and implemented, including how technology is both developed and deployed. The presentation reveals that the increasing focus on zero pests in eradication projects, limits the involvement of communities, social scientists, humanities and indigenous knowledge-holders therefore restricting the opportunity for important ‘entanglements’ in the new alliances that are formed in eradication projects. The presentation argues for more critical reflection on the performative effect of seeking zero pests in eradication projects.