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Good practice Imported

LIFE PonDerat — Black Rat Eradication on Inhabited Ventotene Island (Pontine Archipelago, Italy)

Italy · Ventotene · See the Italy profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 64% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

EU LIFE project (2015–2022, €1.79M) eradicated black rats from inhabited Ventotene — among the largest inhabited islands ever freed of rats — cutting a €18,500/year cost to residents and lifting Scopoli's shearwater breeding success from ~10% to over 90%.

~10 %
Scopoli's shearwater breeding success before eradication (pre-2015)
>90 %
Scopoli's shearwater breeding success within four years of eradication (within 4 years of eradication)
18,500 EUR/year
Annual cost of rat damage to residents before eradication (pre-2015)
1,788,216 EUR
Total project budget (2015-2022)
1,072,930 EUR
EU contribution to project budget (2015-2022)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Regione Lazio – Direzione Ambiente / ISPRA / Ente Gestore AMP Isole di Ventotene e S. Stefano / NEMO / Sapienza Università di Roma
Period
2015–2022
Region (NUTS)
ITI4
Keywords
invasive species control, seabird conservation, public health, island ecosystem restoration

Context

The Pontine Archipelago (Ventotene, Santo Stefano, Palmarola, Zannone, Ponza), off Italy's Lazio coast, hosts key Mediterranean breeding colonies of Scopoli's and Yelkouan shearwaters. Introduced black rats (Rattus rattus) preyed on eggs and chicks and imposed direct costs on Ventotene's roughly 700 year-round residents.

Objectives

To eradicate black rats from the inhabited island of Ventotene in order to protect shearwater breeding colonies and reduce costs and zoonotic disease risk to residents.

Activities

From 2015 to 2022, the EU LIFE project 'LIFE PonDerat' (LIFE14 NAT/IT/000544), led by Regione Lazio's Environment Directorate with ISPRA, the Ventotene & Santo Stefano Marine Protected Area authority, NEMO and Sapienza University of Rome, eradicated black rats from Ventotene — reported as among the largest inhabited islands ever freed of rats worldwide.

Results

A peer-reviewed 2024 study (Capizzi et al., Pest Management Science) found Scopoli's shearwater breeding success rose from roughly 10% to over 90% within four years of eradication. The rats had previously cost residents at least €18,500 per year through crop and structural damage, and multiple zoonotic pathogens carried by the rats were eliminated alongside them.

Conclusions

Eradicating rats from an inhabited island with domestic pets and mixed community support proved logistically harder than uninhabited-island campaigns, and sustained biosecurity is needed to prevent reinvasion via boat traffic from nearby, still-infested islands such as Ponza.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Stated total project budget of €1,788,216 (EU LIFE contribution €1,072,930) over 2015-2022; classified medium for a single-island, multi-partner conservation project of this scale.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Project ran 2015-2022 (7 years); classified long.
Staffing & skills
Regione Lazio – Direzione Ambiente (project lead), ISPRA, Ventotene & Santo Stefano Marine Protected Area authority, NEMO, Sapienza University of Rome

Conditions for success

  • Coordinated multi-partner consortium spanning regional government, a national research institute, the MPA authority and a university
  • EU LIFE co-financing (EU contribution of roughly 60% of the total budget)

Common failure modes

  • Eradication logistics are harder on an inhabited island with domestic pets and mixed community support than on uninhabited islands
  • Risk of reinvasion via boat traffic from nearby, still-infested islands (e.g. Ponza) without sustained biosecurity

Where it fits

Governance type
EU-co-funded regional-government-led programme
Scale
single inhabited island (~700 residents)
Income level
high-income (EU/Italy)

Commonly funded by

LIFE Programme National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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