5th Meeting of the Panel on Invasive Alien Species
Strasbourg (FR), 2004-10-13/14
The Panel on Invasive Alien Species met in Strasbourg (FR) on 2004-10-13/14 at the Council of Europe with the participation of Mr E. Fernandez-Galiano, head of the Natural Heritage and Biological Diversity Division. It was announced that a new scientific officer will be soon recruited at the EPPO headquarters to work on Invasive Alien Species.
The Panel finalized the format for the datasheet on plant species, including a range of habitats and climate and vegetation maps. The PRA scheme was reviewed and the Panel provided comments for the EPPO Panel on Pest Risk Analyses to adapt it better to plants. It identified a set of domestic measures to manage intentionally introduced plants.
The Panel decided to give a high profile to the list of over 40 invasive plant species already identified, with recommendations on some basic measures to be taken by all EPPO countries concerned. This list will be finalized at the next meeting. In parallel, the Panel will continue to work in detail on individual cases from this list, applying PRA and proposing specific measures. The EPPO declaration "EPPO protects plants" was revised and updated.
The next meeting is planned in Montpellier (FR) on 2005-05-23/24, just before the workshop on "Invasive Plants in the Mediterranean Type Regions of the World" which EPPO will co-organize on 2005-05-25/27.
