On November 20th, the Galapagos National Park Service and Charles Darwin Foundation formally declared the complete eradication of goats from Pinta Island. Since May 2000, only one pig has been detected and removed from Santiago Island. The island will be declared pig free if no signs of the animals are found for 18 continuous months of monitoring. With this declaration, Santiago will be the largest island in the world from which pigs have been eradicated. A census of invertebrates associated with agricultural crops was initiated.
Agricultural zones are sources from which many introduced species spread.
This census will increase the collection and listing of introduced species, and improve collaboration with farmers for the early detection of new species entering the islands. This is vital for prompt eradication of new invasive species. A workshop on avian diseases was organized jointly with Dr Martin Wikelski at Princeton University, as a first step towards addressing the serious long-term threat of introduced diseases. It is estimated that the census detects a little over half the total penguin population. The revision of the degree of threat to the 240 species and subspecies of endemic plants registered in Galapagos, according to IUCN criteria, was two thirds complete by the end of 2000.