1. Enter Title of Presentation Here Building Pride on Guam
Go Native!
Building Pride on Guam
Teaser: How to you make a forest sing?
Cheryl M. Calaustro
Guam Dept. of Agriculture
Rare Confidential

2. Enter Title of Presentation Here
Guam Rail, ko’ko’
Guam is the largest island in the Marianas Archipelago and home to an endemic bird called the Guam rail or ko’ko’ in Chamorro. It is extinct in the wild and only exists in captivity. Guam is also home to myself, my name is Cheryl Calaustro, I work for Guam Department of Agriculture in the Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources and I am the Alumni Campaign Manager for Go Native! With our tagline “Prutehi I island Guahan” which means, “Protect our island Guam”. The tagline is very appropriate in that it summarizes the main point of my campaign. This is to protect native species by eliminating or decreasing invasive species.
Rare Confidential

3. The results of invasive species
This slide depicts what the forests of Guam looked like before the advent of the brown treesnake. And after World War II, this is all that we have left: the island swiftlet or Chachaguak on the left and the Marianas starling or Sali.
And if you listen very carefully…..you’ll hear what the forests sound like now…….(pause)…….only silence………
The disappearance of Guam’s native birds is attributed to the voracious brown treesnake but other invasive species such as the coqui frog and coconut rhinoceros beetle can have large scale detrimental impact on Guam’s landscape.
Other animals such as the feral cat can also be a predator of the bird. It has been proven that ko’ko’ can thrive in areas with low snake densities but in poor habitat with no underbrush and an abundance of feral cats, the ko’ko’ cannot survive. This is why my campaign also focused on responsible pet ownership.

4. Enter Title of Presentation Here
“Why should I care?”
Economic Impacts:
Damage to infrastructure
Threatens trade relations
Decreased property values
Loss of tourism revenue
Increased agricultural production costs
Health: Decrease quality of living
Diseases may be invasive species
Other invasive species may be vectors
Human disease
Plant and crop infections
Pet and livestock illness
Wildlife maladies
A Place for Wildlife:
NOW OR NEVER OR GONE FOREVER
Changes happening on Guam – buildup by 2014, 80k
no change in behavior means proliferation of invasive species
further loss of native species
no place for recovery
No good habitat
loss of cultural resources/history
Rare Confidential

5. Pre-Campaign Survey conducted in Spring 08
53.7% knew the brown treesnake is a threat
5% knew that feral cats and rodents are also potential predators
43% knew to call authorities regarding invasive species
40% knew to not release animals into the wild
23% knew to spay and neuter pets
So today I’m going to talk to you about my campaign in both quantitative and qualitative (anecdotal) aspects.
To help the planning process, a pre-campaign survey was conducted and using Survey Pro we analyzed our baseline results. Here is a sample of my results:

6. Survey continued…
The majority of youth were neutral when asked if they thought spaying or neutering pets will help native wildlife.
The majority of youth believe there is something they can do to protect the native wildlife of Guam.
The majority of youth who own pets did not have them spayed or neutered.
Young adults (16 – 20) had high knowledge of the ko’ko’ and it’s threats
What did this mean?
Basically, that youth were farther along on the behavior stage continuum. Meaning they were somewhere within the preparation stage, meaning they had a high level of knowledge concerning threats to the ko’ko’ as well as a good attitude and so behavior change is likely if you give them that little push/incentive, or show them that benefit.
And so one of my target audiences were the youth of Guam.

7. Enter Title of Presentation Here
Christmas trees may hide invaders
BY BRETT KELMAN • PACIFIC DAILY NEWS • NOVEMBER 28, 2008
There could be more than just ornaments hanging in your tree.
Snake comes in by Christmas tree
BY BRETT KELMAN • PACIFIC DAILY NEWS • DECEMBER 5, 2008
Workers at Cost-U-Less in Tamuning found a present under one of their Christmas trees a little early this year -a snake.
So with those results, my campaign launched an assult using mass media and face to face tactics that included:
Total TV 10
Total radio 4
Handful of stories and articles online and traditional Newspaper, Magazine articles including the PDN, MV, Triton's Call, Guahan Magazine, Guam Business Journal
PSAs at restaurants, malls, tv. This is what we had playing on the large electronic billboard at Guam’s busiest intersection.
and beyond rareplanet.org, a Facebook page for Che’lu, the Go Native! Ko’ko’ mascot as well as Go Native! Campaign page
As well as fielding 210 calls from the coqui frog hotline
Total students 6611, 33 schools (elem, middle, high)
Rare Confidential

8. SMART Objective attainment
Results
SMART Objective
Pre-Campaign (%)
Post-Campaign (%)
Change (Post% - Pre%)
SMART Objective attainment
By the end of April 2009, increase from 67% to 87% (a 20 percentage point increase) the number of youth (ages 16-20) who state that “the ko’ko’ are only found on Guam”.
66.9
74.8
7.9pp
39.5%
By the end of April 2009, increase from 25% to 45% (a 20 percentage point increase) the number of youth (ages 16-20) who “strongly agree” that spaying/neutering pets helps native wildlife.
24.8
28.9
4.1pp
20.5%
By the end of April 2009, increase from 44% to 64% (a 20 percentage point increase) the number of youth (ages 16-20) who do not release unwanted pets in the wild.
44.3
55.5
11.2pp
56.0%
But these are the results that you might get:
7.9pp increase in the number of youth who know that ko’ko’ are only found on Guam
-4.1 pp increase in the number of youth who strongly agree that spaying/neutering pets help native wildlife.
11.2pp increase in the number of youth who do not release unwanted pets in the wild.
These are all small gains in SMART objective attainment but they are all still successes.
Why are Guam’s results not as impressive?
Challenging Results
Government framework – hard to work within protocols, established traditions.
Dilution of messages – because there are so many other organization on Guam that all their own conservation goals and agendas, as well as “competing” campaigns within my own department, I’m afraid my message was slightly muffled.
How do you solve this? (3 C’s: Capacity, Constituency, Conservation)
Build capacity within our organizations
Cultivating/repairing community relationships
This will ultimately lead to conservation results.

9. Resulting considerations
Umbrella framework of the Go Native! Campaign – the overarching message that invasive species can negatively impact native species and landscapes can help to unify existing and future campaigns to stem the dilution or mixing of key messages.

10. Sal Avilla II, Christian Cruz, Anthony Concepcion
“Seeing” Results
SAVE KO’KO’
Sal Avilla II, Christian Cruz, Anthony Concepcion
(GWHS – 9/10 English class) 
We’ll kill all the snakes
We’ll shoot all the cats
We’ll do whatever it takes
We’ll burn all the rats 
We shall chow the pig and deer
We will eat with no regret
Ko’ko’ birds help is near
Ko’ko’ Rap
Gerika Paulino, 5th grade
Inarajan Elementary 
Long ago, on the island of GUAM
Ko’ ko’ birds were oh so calm.
Now they are oh so scared
‘cause the brown tree snake made them bare.
The snakes catch them ‘cause they can’t fly
No one wants to see the ko’ko’ go BYE!!!!
Please don’t make the ko’ko’s go please.
‘cause you’ll never be at ease…… 
How do we present them?
Anecdotes
Verses from songs, poetry
Furthermore, a coqui frog, ball pythons and monkeys were reported and confiscated by Department of Agriculture during the length of my campaign.

11. Importance of Stakeholders/ Partnerships
Enter Title of Presentation Here
Importance of Stakeholders/ Partnerships
You can’t do it alone
Added resources/ knowledge
Enable the removal of barriers
Continuance of campaign goals
You don’t have all the answers nor the resources to complete the task. For example, to monitor my progress, I partnered with GAIN (Guam Animals in Need) to see if spay and neuter numbers were increasing.
Partnering again this year…..
Che’lu with US Congressman Rahall, Chairman for the Committee of Natural Resources and Guam Congresswoman Bordallo
Supporters of the ko’ko’ come from all walks of life.
Rare Confidential

12. Lessons Learned Move along on the behavior change continuum.
Everyone has challenges, adaptive management is key.
Achievement is relative.
Look for new opportunities.
So what are the results of my results?
The campaign is a path to get from A to Z. You may not arrive at your end goal in 1 year but your always progressing towards it.
All campaigns have had their challenges so you have to learn to be creative and “go with the flow”. Adaptive management is your friend.
I not only helped the community gain “Pride” but also I found pride within myself:
More important: confidence, pride, patience
Better rules for engagement
Time management
Achievement comes in all shapes and sizes. Success can be measured not only by numbers.
Statistically insignificant results are not the end of the world, but the beginning of new opportunities for learning and reassessment.

13. Ko’ko’ for Cocos!!!
Cocos Island is a 33.6-ha atoll-like island located 2.5 km southwest of Guam (Figure 1). The island is 1.93 km long and 0.15 km wide. The northeastern 24.8-ha of the island (approximately two-thirds) is privately owned and managed by CIR. The remaining 8.8-ha is a park managed by Guam Department of Parks and Recreation.
This island is an excellent stop to reintroduce the Guam rail back into the wild.

14. CIR is a day use tourist resort
CIR is a day use tourist resort. Pending current surveys, it has no rats, cats, snakes or ungulates. Therefore it has good habitat as evidenced by the numerous seabirds that nest on the island. However, it does have a number of boats travelling to and from the island carrying with it not only tourists but the risk of biosecurity being breached.

15. With alumni funds, I will help ensure that Cocos Island remains predator free by educating boaters that travel to the island as well as it’s staff and the surrounding village of Merizo.
Here are our key messages.

16. If we can keep Cocos predator-free, then we can release rails into the wild, and hopefully proliferate.
It could be as early as this summer!

17. Guam’s forests now sing
In conclusion, I am very happy to say that at the end of my campaign, Guam’s forests now sing.
It may not be the sound of bird song yet, but we have hope that it will be one day soon.

18. Maraming Salamat Sa Inyong Lahat! Good Luck!
Cheryl M. Calaustro
Wildlife Biologist
gmail.com