Invasive Alien Species (IAS) are one of the major causes of biodiversity loss, alongside habitat destruction, climate change and pollution. In recent years there has been a significant increase in our understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and their importance to human wellbeing. However, biodiversity is still being lost, ecosystems are still being degraded, and many of nature’s contributions to wellbeing are being compromised (IPBES 2019).

 

The “Mitigate Invasions” workshop will assemble to address the challenges of aquatic IAS. There will be at least three working groups at the “Mitigate Invasion” workshop: 1) data collection and modelling 2) current and possible eradication actions and 3) current and possible decision-making models. Three task force groups will be preparing a positioning paper as well as a detailed proposals for undertaking the HORIZON-CL6-2024-BIODIV: Invasive alien species call.

 

KEY OBJECTIVES

  • understand how to minimize establishment of aquatic IAS accidentally introduced in the EU environment.
  • discuss current and potential early warning systems that can be used to directly inform relevant stakeholders.
  • understand how to prevent the introduction of aquatic IAS effectively or to better manage established ones.
  • discuss how to improve public awareness, literacy, and engagement in aquatic IAS monitoring and management.
  • screen methods and action to reduce pressure on species on the Red List threatened by aquatic IAS.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES

There are 4 main outcomes of the workshop, those being:

  • Utilising the EuroMarine network and scouting for experts outside the network to provide a list of available expertise in the EU to build a strong and innovative IAS working group.
  • A consortium to address the Horizon CL6-24-BIODIV on the Invasive Alien Species.
  • Defining several working groups (at least one per objective) to submit a perspective letter to open access sources such as the Open Research Europe platform.
  • A draft proposal for Horizon 2024 call (Horizon CL6-24-BIODIV).

 

EXPECTED IMPACT

This workshop aims to address the issue of invasive species by collaboration in order to

reduce harmful effects of IAS on aquatic biodiversity which will support healthy oceans in line with UN SDG 14.

 

REGISTRATION

The workshop is not open to the public and is exclusively for invited speakers. However, the results and synthesis of the workshop will be made available to the public through the EuroMarine homepage.

More details on registration will be published here and via the EuroMarine network newsletter and social media channels.

Manager

SDU

Co-Organizers

MARE, NTNU, GEOMAR, Senckenberg