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Species Survival Commission |
Invasive Species Specialist Group
| ISSG aims to reduce threats to natural ecosystems and the native species they contain by increasing awareness of invasive alien species, and of ways to prevent, control or eradicate them. |
Message from the Chair
May 22nd 'The International Day for Biological Diversity 2009' is dedicated to invasive alien species. Scientific evidence indicates that biological invasions are growing at an unprecedented rate, posing increasing threats to the diversity of life, and also disrupting ecosystem functionality. Global economies, as well as water supply, food security and human health are impacted negatively.
Despite the urgency to take action against invasions, public awareness on the issue is inadequate. We hope that the celebration of May 22nd will make the international community realise the high costs that we are all paying to the globalization of economies, and at last convince decision makers to implement the principles that were agreed under the Convention on Biological Diversity (http://www.cbd.int/decision/cop/?id=7197), but never fully applied.
ISSG is ready to do its bit for supporting global action toward biological invasions; our network of leading specialists provide technical advice to policy makers, and, ISSG disseminates the most current and reliable information on invasive species ecology, their impacts on biological diversity and ways to prevent and control their spread.
Piero Genovesi
Chair IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group
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Visit from the Director-General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN)
The work of the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) and the Pacific Invasives Initiative (PII) received attention from the Director-General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Saturday, 6 June, 2009. Ms Julia Marton Lefevre met members of the two groups at the Tamaki Campus of The University of Auckland, to discuss New Zealand’s world-leading role in invasive species management.
The Director-General was accompanied by Taholo Kami (IUCN Regional Director, Oceania), Diane Shand (IUCN Regional Councillor, Oceania) and Andrew Bignell (Manager International Relations, Department of Conservation). Prior to her visit to Tamaki Campus, Ms Lefevre had been taken to invasive species management projects at Karori in Wellington and Tiritiri Matangi in Auckland. As a result of her experiences in New Zealand and discussions with members of the ISSG and PII staff, the Director-General acknowledged the importance of invasive species management in both biodiversity and livelihood areas and pledged IUCN support for the programmes.
Ms Marton-Lefevre’s visit, her first to the region, had been highly anticipated and highlighted IUCN’s role and experiences in providing a rich platform for all stakeholders to share environmental issues in the region. Her visit also provided the opportunity for discussions to strengthen the role of IUCN in delivering its value propositions with IUCN commission members, members and potential members in the region.
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Italian Minister of Environment announces support to the Global Invasive Species Database
The Italian Minister of the Environment Stefania Prestigiacomo has announced financial support for the Global Invasive Species Database (GISD), the freely accessible online database of the ISSG. The GISD is acknowledged as the most authoritative and comprehensive database on alien species at the global scale. Following the appointment of Piero Genovesi as new ISSG chair, GISD in the future will be hosted at the Environmental Protection and Research Institute (ISPRA) in Rome, Italy.
The Italian Ministry of Environment is committed to provide financial contributions to enhance the improvement of the GISD, and in particular to integrate it with other information services, thus increasing support to decision makers.
The commitment of the Italian Minister is a first implementation of the actions listed in the Syracuse Charter on Biodiversity, agreed at the last G8 Environment Ministers meeting, which calls for developing and strengthening actions to prevent and control the spread of invasive alien species, and support to global information systems.
Invasive alien species are recognised by the Millennium Ecosystem assessment as one of the five key drivers of change in ecosystems, the other four key drivers are habitat change, climate change, over exploitation and pollution. Globally there is growing awareness of the impacts of invasive alien species on native biodiversity and actions have been intitiated at various levels to manage and mitigate their spread and negative impacts. [Please note: map page will open into a new window.] |
The Invasive Species Problem
Increasingly, global trade and communication are directly contributing to the mixing of faunas and floras across biogeographical boundaries. To describe this new epoch of widespread anthropogenic influence, some researchers have suggested the term Homogocene.
Species suddenly taken to new environments may fail to survive but often they thrive, and they become invasive. This process, together with habitat destruction, has been a major cause of extinction of native species throughout the world in the past few hundred years. Although in the past many of these losses have gone unrecorded, today, there is an increasing realisation of the ecological costs of biological invasion in terms of irretrievable loss of native biodiversity. All habitat types in all climate zones can be affected. Protected Areas are not immune. See for example, a paper on the Scale And Nature Of Invasive Alien Species Threats to Protected Areas and a short paper on Global Lessons. While the underlying causes of IAS threats are significant and global in nature the threat can effectively be dealt with at the local site level, especially through prevention, early detection and rapid response.
Invasive species are organisms (usually transported by humans) which successfully establish themselves in, and then overcome, otherwise intact, pre-existing native ecosystems. Biologists are still trying to characterise this capability to invade in the hope that incipient invasions can be predicted and stopped. Factors may include:an organism has been relieved of the pressures of predators or parasites of its native country; being biologically "hardy", for example, has short generations and a generalist diet; arriving in an ecosystem already disturbed by humans or some other factor. But whatever the causes, the consequences of such invasions - including alteration of habitat and disruption of natural ecosystem processes - are often catastrophic for native species.
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The Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) is part of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The ISSG is a global group of 146 scientific and policy experts on invasive species from 41 countries. Membership is by invitation from the group chair, but everyone's participation in the discussion on invasives is encouraged. ISSG provides advice on threats from invasives and control or eradication methods to IUCN members, conservation practitioners, and policy-makers. Interested readers, please consider subscribing to our newsletter Aliens or joining the listserver Aliens-L.
last updated 22 May 2009 |