Assessment of Best Management Practices

Dr. Jeffrey K. Waage - Programme Leader

Project facilitation team - (Editors: Invasive Alien Species; A Toolkit of Best Prevention and Management Practices):

Rudiger Wittenberg, Rüdiger Wittenberg, CABI, Rüdiger Wittenberg, CABI Bioscience Centre, Switzerland , 1 Rue des Grillons, CH-2800 Delémont, Switzerland.
E-mail: ruediger.wittenberg@csiro-europe.org.

Dr. Matthew Cock, Centre Director , CABI Bioscience Centre, Switzerland , 1 Rue des Grillons, CH-2800 Delémont, Switzerland.
E-mail: m.cock@cabi-bioscience.ch.
Tel: ++ 41 32 421 4872 (direct), ++ 41 32 421 4870 (office),
Fax: ++ 41 32 421 4871, Web-site: www.cabi.org/bioscience/switz/.

Management of invasive species problems is usually the responsibility of government agencies which must select targets for management and develop management programmes. These are both substantial challenges. With a growing number of invasive species problems due to increased trade, and a recognition of the serious invasive problems affecting conservation. Managers are confronted with more potential targets than their resources can address, and often lack expertise in prioritizing these for action. Managers need an understanding of the history of invasives elsewhere, their status in the country and their specific impact in ecological and economic terms. In particular there is a general lack of scientific methodology for evaluating the risk posed by invasives to biodiversity, and for understanding the complex relations of invasives within plant and animal communities and the environment. Invasives may be a symptom of another ecological problem (eg. overgrazing of grasslands, eutrophication of waterways due to deforestation), such that management of particular invasives may not provide a lasting solution, and/or may simply lead to their replacement by other invasive species. Across the board, there may be a lack of understanding of the basic population ecology of invasive species problems which must underpin appropriate decision making - without this, expensive eradication campaigns may be mounted against species which are too well established for eradication to be effective, or the value of biological control as a self-sustaining control measure may not be understood relative to repeated chemical control measures.

Assessment of Best Management Practices

Proposal and Activities

Assessment of Best Management Practices & Early Warning Systems Workshop Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - March 22-27, 1999

East African Workshop, Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa - July 1999