BIOPLAN POSTING 2001-5-9
BIOPLAN POSTING 2001-5-9
05/15/01 01:55 PM
bioplan
David.Duthie@unep.org
Dear BIOPLANNERS,
Rather belatedly, for this year at least, I am drawing your attention
to
International Biodversity Day which falls on May 22nd of each year.
Below is an example of how to celebrate from IUCN - too late for the
rest
of us to get organised this year, but maybe in 2002!
The ever-productive Jeff McNeely, Chief Biodiversity Officer at IUCN,
has
coordinated the production of a useful webpage bringing together IUCN's
ongoing work on invasive aliens.
The page may be found at:
http://iucn.org/biodiversityday/solutions.html
and includes links to:
1. The IUCN Guide to Legal Frameworks on Alien Invasive Species
http://iucn.org/themes/law/GuidetoLegalFrameworksonAIS.pdf
2. Proceedings of the Workshop on the Legal and Institutional
Dimensions
of Alien Invasive Species Introduction and Control IUCN Environmental
Law
Centre, Godesberger Allee 108-112, Bonn, Germany 10-11 December 1999
http://iucn.org/themes/law/elp_invasives.html
3. Control options: freshwater invasives by Geoff W. Howard (A
Paper
presented to the Workshop on "Best Management Practices for preventing
and
controlling Invasive Alien Species. Cape Town, South Africa, 22-24
February, 2000 (Click on the link on the left hand side of:
http://iucn.org/biodiversityday/solutions.html
4. An Introduction to the Human Dimensions of Invasive Alien Species
by
Jeffery McNeely
http://iucn.org/biodiversityday/mcneelyhuman.html
We will add these links to the Invasive Aliens section of the BPSP website.
I will celebrate BD Day by attending our BPSP thematic workshop
in London
on practical guidance for harmonising legal obligations under
biodiversity-related MEAs.
Best wishes
David Duthie.
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Alien Species: Common, Costly and Destructive
GLAND, Switzerland, May 14, 2001 (IUCN) - Invading alien species
are
responsible for a worldwide biodiversity crisis, driving large numbers
of
native plant and animal species to extinction on every continent. The
damage is documented by IUCN - the World Conservation Union in a new
survey
of the 100 worst alien species issued in time for Biodiversity Day,
May 22.
The problems are common species such as the domestic house cat or the
starling, grown familiar with daily contact, but they and hundreds
of other
invasive alien species are moving outside their natural range and
threatening the existence of native plants and animals.
"After habitat loss, this biological invasion constitutes the
greatest
threat to biodiversity, and it has already had devastating consequences
for
the planet," says Jeffrey McNeely, the Union's chief scientist.
"The economic bill runs into tens of billions of dollars every
year.
Pests, weeds and pathogens, introduced deliberately or accidentally,
reduce
crop and stock yields, and degrade marine and freshwater ecosystems,"
McNeely says.
The United Nations Environment Programme and the Secretariat of
the
international agreement to conserve the diversity of species, known
as the
Convention on Biological Diversity, are using this year's Biodiversity
Day
to promote awareness of the perils facing all the world's species -
focusing this year on the management of invasive alien species.
To pinpoint those species where management and control is most
needed, the
Invasive Species Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission
has gathered a list of the world's worst 100 alien invaders.
They include the grey squirrel, the domestic cat, the Indian myna
bird,
the Asian longhorned beetle, the sweet potato whitefly, the Asian tiger
mosquito, the yellow Himalayan raspberry, Koster's curse, the starling,
mimosa, the shoebutton ardisia, the red-vented bulbul, the erect
pricklypear, and the mile-a-minute weed.
"The species in the booklet were selected for their serious impact
on
biological diversity and/or human activities, and for how they highlight
the important issues involved in the alien invasion," says Dr. Mick
Clout,
a New Zealand professor who heads IUCN's Invasive Species Specialist
Group.
"Some particularly notorious cases are listed, but that does not
mean that
a species absent from the list is any less dangerous. Our purpose in
publishing the booklet is to draw attention to the scale and complexity
of
the rapidly growing invasive species problem. But it is really only
the tip
of the iceberg."
The crazy ant, the brown tree snake, the small Indian mongoose,
the Nile
perch, strawberry guava, the water hyacinth, the zebra mussel and the
brushtail possum are all wonderful species in their own habitats, says
Dr.
Clout. But like unwanted house guests they can take over ecosystems
to
which they are alien species.
Crazy ants, so-called because of the way they move, have invaded
native
ecosystems and caused environmental damage from Hawaii to the Seychelles
and Zanzibar. On Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean they killed three
million crabs in 18 months. These red land crabs played an important
role
in the island's forest ecosystem by eating leaves and seedlings of
rainforest trees. Crazy ants also prey on, or interfere with, the
reproduction of a variety of reptiles, birds and mammals on the forest
floor and canopy.
Brown tree snakes lived in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea
and the
Solomon Islands until one day in the late 1940s or early 1950s one
hitchhiked on a military aircraft to Guam, a previously snake-free
island.
The lack of natural predators and the presence of ample prey allowed
the
brown tree snake population to explode. By the 1970s this poisonous
reptile
was found island wide and had done extensive economic and ecological
damage. It has nearly exterminated Guam's native forest birds. The
brown
tree snake is a serious threat to the biological diversity of other
tropical islands because it can conceal itself in the cargo of ships
and
planes, or in aircraft wheel-wells. It has reached Micronesia, Hawaii,
the
mainland U.S. and Spain.
The Nile perch was introduced to Africa's Lake Victoria in 1954
to
counteract the drastic drop in native fish stocks caused by over-fishing.
It promptly eliminated more than 200 native fish species by preying
on them
and competing for food.
Processing of the Nile perch for food set off a cascade of environmentally
destructive events. This fish's flesh is oilier than that of the local
fish, so more trees had to be cut down to fuel fires to dry the catch,
the
IUCN found. The subsequent erosion and run-off contributed to increased
nutrient levels, opening the lake up to invasions by algae and water
hyacinth. In turn these invasions led to oxygen depletion in the lake,
which resulted in the death of more fish. Commercial exploitation of
the
Nile perch has displaced men and women from their traditional fishing
and
processing work.
"It is true that great economic benefits of millions of dollars
per year
in export income are flowing to a few people from the introduction
of the
perch, but none of the money is being spent on managing the considerable
economic and ecological cost imposed on the poor or on the Lake Victoria
ecosystem," McNeely says.
The large purple and violet flowers of the South American water hyacinth
make it a very popular ornamental plant for ponds. But it is one of
the
worst aquatic weeds in the world. Now found in 50 countries on five
continents, water hyacinth is a very fast growing plant, with populations
known to double in only 12 days. Infestations of this weed block waterways,
interfering with boat traffic, swimming and fishing. Water hyacinth
also
prevents sunlight and oxygen from reaching the water column and submerged
plants. Its shading and crowding of native aquatic plants dramatically
reduces biological diversity in aquatic ecosystems.
The voracious and opportunistic small Indian mongoose is native
to the
area from Iran through India to the Malay Peninsula. In the late 1800s
it
was introduced to Fiji, Mauritius, Hawaii and the West Indies to control
rats, which themselves had been accidentally introduced and became
pests of
sugar cane and other crops. This early attempt at biological control
had
disastrous effects, among them the extinction of a number of native
birds,
reptiles and amphibians, and the rare Japanese Amami rabbit.
Dr. Wendy Strahm, the World Conservation Union's plants officer,
warns,
"The effects on biodiversity are immense and often irreversible, and
yet
awareness of the problem is alarmingly low."
The IUCN has also published "The Great Reshuffling - Human Dimensions
of
Invasive Alien Species," a global study of the subject edited by McNeely,
to give the issue a more prominent place on the agenda of conservationists,
economists and planners, and in the thinking of the general public.
IUCN was founded in 1948 and now includes 79 states, 112 government
agencies, 760 nongovernmental organizations, 37 affiliates, and some
10,000
scientists and experts from 181 countries in a worldwide partnership
to
influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve
the integrity and diversity of nature.
*********************************************************
Opportunities to use International Biodiversity Day
UNEP and the Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat will promote
"International Biodiversity Day" May 22 2001 . This year the theme
of
biodiversity day is alien invasive species - an important issue for
IUCN.
International efforts to attract attention to biodiversity and alien
invasive species can be used as a hook by IUCN Members and Commission
members to stimulate local or national action or publicity for the
issue.
The day can serve to put alien invasive species issues "on the agenda"
of
certain groups with the intent of following up with dialogue to search
for
solutions.
Below is an example from Australia of how to get organized:
General promotion:
Promote the Day and its theme to your network at least 6 months before
the
event. This gives organisations ample time to put the Day on their
calendar, and plan events and/or media coverage.
Focussed promotion:
Identify organisations that have a strong interest in the issue, and
invite
them to become theme champions. In Australia, for example, these include
include lead government organisations implementing the National Weeds
Strategy, Weed Co-operative Research Centre, and the Pest Animal Control
Co-operative Research Centre. CRCs are government and academic
consortia
that have been funded to work on specific issues.
Generate context specific information that can be used as media
backgrounders:
Both the Weeds and Pest Animal CRC agreed to submit feature articles
to the
May edition of the CBN LifeLines bulletin. These will be available
from
mid-April. Additionally, to provide a biodiversity perspective, the
chair
of our Biodiversity Advisory Committee (peak Federal Government.
Biodiversity. Advisory body) will submit an article on the future of
Australia's biodiversity.
4. Seek to integrate event into an existing process or program:
The Day was promoted to the network that works on national Weedbuster
Week
(in October), and the Day coincides with a national pest animal conference
in Melbourne, which will use the Day as an additional hook to promote
the
conference.
Identify media hook(s):
In Australia some of the potential hooks are: A good portion of the
Global
100 Worst Invasive Species list are also on Australia's national weed
and
pest animal lists (http://www.weeds.org.au). Many of these nationally
listed environmental weeds are garden escapes, marine ballast invasives,
and alien cane toad reaching Kakadu World Heritage area, with devastating
impacts expected in the short term.
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