The World Parks Congress meets every ten years as the major global forum for protected areas. It offers a unique opportunity to take stock of protected areas; provide an honest appraisal of progress and setbacks; and chart the course for protected areas over the next decade and beyond. Previous Congresses have had a tremendous impact in assisting national governments to create new protected areas and direct more resources towards biodiversity conservation. The Vth World Parks Congress will be held in Durban, South Africa, September 8-17, 2003.

Seven Workshop Streams will be conducted over 3 days in workshop plenaries and smaller break out groups. One of the concurrent workshops as part of the workshop stream ‘Maintaining Protected Areas For Now And The Future: Management Effectiveness’ will be on invasive alien species (IAS). It will be held in two sessions; 4b on the afternoon of day two, Tuesday 12 September and 5b on the morning of day three, Wednesday 13 September.

• Sooner or later IAS will be a management issue regardless of where you are and what type of protected area you manage.
• IAS issues are manageable; there are many ways to prevent and/or fight back.
• Managing IAS in an ecosystem context

Presentations will illustrate key topics:

• Invasive alien species (IAS) as an issue for all protected area managers
• Management tools for IAS
• African case studies
• Island case study
• Resources for fighting back
• Marine IAS

Break-out sessions of guided discussion will focus on conclusions and recommendations, including for IUCN’s future programmes, CBD areas of work, as well bottom up approaches.

WAYS TO PARTICIPATE

• Special Issue of the newsletter "Aliens” : contributions for consideration for articles in Aliens 17 (approx 800- 1000 words) should be sent to issg@auckland.ac.nz by 15 July 2003
• Poster session: poster abstracts are invited by email to issg@Auckland.ac.nz for submission by 15 July. Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by 30 July 2003.

Geoffrey Howard from the IUCN East African Office and Maj De Poorter from the ISSG office are both involved in the planning of this workshop. If you wish to be kept updated, or would like to find out how you could be involved in this, please contact the ISSG office: issg@auckland.ac.nz

IAS WORKSHOP 12,13 SEPTEMBER 2003

The sessions will cover three major issues:

• Invasive alien species (IAS) as an issue for all protected area managers;
• IAS as a tractable problem for PA managers; and
• Managing IAS in an ecosystem context.

MATERIAL PREPARED FOR THE WORKSHOP

Background paper: will be posted on ISSG website (www.issg.org) by 1 August 2003

Special Issue of the newsletter "Aliens” : contributions for consideration (approx 800- 1000 words) should be sent to issg@auckland.ac.nz by 15 July 2003

Poster session: poster abstracts are invited by email to issg@Auckland.ac.nz for submission by 15 July. Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by 30 July 2003.

DRAFT SESSION 4b (AFTERNOON) Speaker allocation not finalised – depends on confirmed attendances

10-35 min Presentation 2: Introduction to the issue: what are invasive alien species (IAS) and what are their impacts. Relevance to Protected Areas. What International instruments or programmes are in existence that try to address them. (Speaker: TBF IUCN HQ? GISP or partner? )

35-60 min: Presentation 3: Practical methods and approaches to address the IAS issue. Toolkit and examples. Prevention, Surveillance, Eradication and Control. Ecosystem context. (Speaker: TBF: IUCN EARO?,)

60-80 min: Presentation 4: African case study I (Speaker: TBF)

80-95 min BREAK

95-115 min Presentation 5: African Case Study II (Speaker: TBF)

115-135 min Presentation 6: Island Case Study (Speaker TBF : Mauritius Wildlife Foundation?)

135-150 min Presentation 7 : "Fighting Back : GEF as part of the solution" (Speaker TBF: World Bank rep?)

150 –165 : Preentation 8: "Fighting back: examples/case studies of practical bottom-up initiatives" Speaker (TBF: ISSG?)

165-180 min: Further discussion and wrap up of this session (chaired by organiser)

DRAFT SESSION 5 (MORNING)

0-45 min: marine aspects of IAS and Protected Areas (2 speakers? IUCN Marine Programme and IMO??)

45-75 min : based on restraints identified in various Regional workshops (GISP, GBF) on IAS in the last two years, breakout group discussion to summarise restraints to deal with IAS in the specific Protected Areas context

75-90 min : BREAK

90-135: break out group: brainstorming on how to address the restraints to deal with IAS in Protected Areas context (things that should or could be done by: Park Agencies, Communities, Programmes, IUCN, motivated individuals/volunteers, ….)

135-165: Recommendations on Issues/priorities for IUCN to work on as part of its work programs (WCPA and other thematic programmes)

165-180: whereto from here: further input of participant in final report and recommendations etc….closure.

OUTPUTS

• Report containing summary of papers and discussion in session one and conclusions and recommendations from session two. This will be finalised with input from participants, and published on the ISSG website (www.issg.org)
• Input into the Management Effectiveness chapter in Managing PAs in the 21st Century.
• Other, as identified by participants' recommendations

Further information specifically on the invasives component of the WPC will be available on this website. A background paper will be posted by 1 August 2003.

This information is provided by the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG), part of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of The World Conservation Union (IUCN).