Meeting on the EPPO prioritization process for invasive alien plants

Paris, 2010-02-23/25

As there is no widely agreed method to identify those alien plants that are considered invasive and represent the highest priority for Pest Risk Analysis, the ad hoc Panel on Invasive Alien Species has been working for several years on the development of the EPPO prioritization process for invasive alien plants. Such process is designed (i) to produce a list of invasive alien plants that are established or could potentially establish in the EPPO region, and (ii) to determine which of these have the highest priority for an EPPO Pest Risk Analysis.

This draft prioritization process was tested with specific examples. Each expert had to run the process for his/her country for the following sets of species, and the results were discussed during the meeting:

• Species of the EPPO List of Invasive Alien Plants: Ailanthus altissima, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Baccharis halimifolia, Buddleja davidii, Carpobrotus acinaciformis and C. edulis, Cortaderia selloana, Impatiens glandulifera, Ludwigia peploides and L. grandiflora, Fallopia spp.
• Species of the Alert List: Akebia quinata, Alternanthera philoxeroides, Araujia sericifera, Cornus sericea, Delairea odorata, Eriochloa villosa, Fallopia baldschuanica, Hakea sericea, Humulus japonicus, Hydrilla verticillata, Microstegium vimineum, Myriophyllum heterophyllum, Pistia stratiotes, Salvinia molesta, Sesbania punicea, Verbesina encelioides.

As an outcome, the experts finalized the EPPO prioritization process on invasive alien plants, and agreed on whether the plants listed above are considered as invasive, and represent priorities for EPPO PRAs. These results are now published in the EPPO Bulletin (Brunel S, Branquart E, Fried G, van Valkenburg J, Brundu G, Starfinger U, Buholzer S, Uludag A, Joseffson M & Baker R (2010) The EPPO prioritization process for invasive alien plants. Bulletin OEPP/EPPO Bulletin 40, 407-422).

Another meeting on the EPPO prioritization process will be organized in Paris in February 2011 in order to assess all other invasive alien plants listed in the EPPO system (Alert list, EPPO List of invasive alien plants).

The following experts attended this meeting:

Mr Etienne Branquart, Belgian Biodiversity Platform (BE)
Mr Guiseppe Brundu, Corpo Forestale et di Vigilanza Ambientale (IT)
Mr Serge Buholzer, Agroscope Reckenholz- Tänikon Research Station ART (CH)
Mr Guillaume Fried, LNPV Station de Montpellier (FR)
Ms Melanie Josefsson, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SE)
Mr Uwe Starfinger, Julius Kühn Institute (DE)
Mr Ahmet Uludag, European Environment Agency (EEA) 
Mr Johan van Valkenburg, Plant Protection Service (NL)
EPPO Secretariat: Ms Sarah Brunel, Mr Nico van Opstal