Community-driven survey of land snails in three communal conservation areas in East Kwaio, Malaita, Solomon Islands.
Abstract
In collaboration with the Kwainaa’isi Cultural Centre and Baru Conservation Alliance, we undertook a survey of the land snails of East Kwaio, Malaita, Solomon Islands with emphasis on the species inventory of three communal conservation reserves. This report is based on three visits to the region in April 2019 and November 2023. We conducted collective visual searches at five main survey sites recording 35 species of land snails based on morphological examinations. We collected 186 sample vouchers that are deposited in the malacological collection of the Australian Museum as resource for on-going taxonomic research aimed at an enhanced documentation of the land snail fauna of Malaita. Considering an inevitable sampling bias, we conclude that the land snail faunas of all three conservation sites are rather similar and that collectively the three reserves contain a representative fraction of the overall land snail diversity in central Malaita. Therefore, the reserves fulfil their intended role of preserving Malaita’s land snail species for the future.
