Invasive Alien Species

Welcome to the Discussion Forum on Risk analysis on the potential consequences of the introduction of invasive alien species on social, economic and cultural values for the month of August.  I will be acting as the moderator for these discussions. Collecting the cases of risk analysis and data sources applied by CBD countries (Parties) are critically important. As Pete, Christine and Shyama have done for the previous sessions, we will structure this around the following areas: .

4a) Qualitative and quantitative existing cases of the impacts of invasive alien species on socio-economic and cultural values and the well being of indigenous and local communities that capture a diversity of impacts?

4b) What actual and potential risk analysis and other relevant methods are available or are being or could be developed that can be used for preventing/limiting the impacts of invasive alien species on socio-economic and cultural values and the well being of indigenous and local communities?

4c) Can the knowledge gained so far on the impacts of invasive alien species on socio-economic and cultural values and the well being of indigenous and local communities provide a basis for better ways of defining, measuring and quantifying such impacts in the future?     

I look forward to our discussions and working with you to help scope some suggested approaches, frameworks and guidelines to help the CBD address these challenging but extremely important non-market human impacts of invasive alien species.

Andy Sheppard (CSIRO Australia)

p.s. I will be away over this weekend but back to provide some direct input first thing Monday, so please don't hesitate to kick in responses to these threads in the meantime

Hi All

we are half way into this last discussion forum topic and I would like to give all you government nominated delegates a pep talk to engage as much as you can during these last 2 weeks.

As you know these online discussion fora provide the background for the soon to come together CBD-IAS-AHTEG to form the basis of their discussions and recommendations for the importance of IAS and new to be developed 2030 targets under the Global Biodiversity Framework, which will itself feed into the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) meetings of CBD party governments around the GBF. The first OWEG meeting is this month in Nairobi.

Therefore getting as much material together as we can through these fora can really drive the thinking of the AHTEG and have maxmimum influence on the GBF process.

Next week is also the first Author Meeting of the IPBES IAS Thematic Assessment in Tokyo where we can also influence the socio-economic thinking ans structure of that assessment

In these last two weeks please put your best efforts into this forum to fulfill the role you governments entrusted you with when they nominated you to this forum.

I will be writing a summary of the forum outputs thinking to present not only back to Junko at the CBD,  but also for background to that Author meeting.

If you each add at least one more entry between now and the 30th August we would have a huge resource of information to give back to the CBD.

Thanks to those who have already contributed the diversity in the group is amazing and this is reflected in the entries so keep them coming. Even anecdotal entries are valuable in this much less studied socio-economic IAS space.  

So please help us with one last big push in the areas of 4a), 4b) or 4c)!

Much appreciated in advance!

Andy Sheppard

Hi All

Just heard about this report chapter from Kew Gardens in 2017 which covers invasive plants. Page 4 cover two good socio-economic examples:

1. LEUCAENA LEUCOCEPHALA – MIRACLE TREE OR DETRIMENTAL INVADER? &

2. THE WORKING FOR WATER PROGRAMME IN SOUTH AFRICA (which is a classic example of how managing plant invasions has led to widespread social, environmental and economic benefits)

Have a read...

http://www.stateoftheworldsplants.org/2017/report/SOTWP_2017_9_invasive_species.pdf

5 days to the end of this Online Forum!

Andy

Hi All

This ends this discussion forum. I will collate and post a summary of the discussion over the next few days.

Thanks for your active participation

Andy Sheppard

Dear all,
The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) – housed by FAO/UN, also a biodiversity-related Convention and recognized as plant health standard setting body for the WTO-SPS agreement, develops international standards for phytosanitary measures (ISPM), CPM recommendations, and also has a component to help with their implementation and capacity building activities of the 183 IPPC member countries (= contracting parties).

The scope of the Convention includes not only the protection of cultivated plants, but also extends to encompass natural flora and plant products.

Currently, the IPPC has over 100 standards, among them phytosanitary treatments and diagnostic protocols for specific pests (https://www.ippc.int/en/core-activities/standards-setting/ispms). The IPPC has the ISPM 11 on pest risk analysis for quarantine pests (https://www.ippc.int/en/publications/639/), which also considers in its supplements pest risk analysis for LMOs and determining the potential for a LMO to be a pest (see also ISPM 2 on framework pest risk analysis available at: https://www.ippc.int/en/publications/592/).
The IPPC also has a CPM recommendation (CPM = Commission on Phytosanitary Measures) on “Threats to biodiversity posed by alien species: actions within the framework of the IPPC” (https://www.ippc.int/en/publications/84229/).

The IPPC participated at the Bern meeting in June 2019, in which discussions took place for the post 2020 GBF. As mentioned at that occasion, the IPPC has a newly endorsed Strategic Framework for 2020-2030, in which we have as a Strategic Objective – “Protect the environment from the impacts of plant pests”. This objective is targeted at plant pests which are invasive alien species and which can and do have a significant and devastating impact on the terrestrial, marine and freshwater environments, agriculture and forests. Consequently, the IPPC framework is applied to address environmental concerns as they relate to plant biodiversity and emerging problems associated with invasive alien species that are plant pests.

In broad words, some recommendations to a post-2020 global biodiversity framework are:
• A robust framework that considers plant health as a key component.
• A framework that highlights invasive alien species that are plant pests.
• A framework supported by a coherent, comprehensive and innovative communication strategy.

We’ll be providing comments to the separate points 4a), 4b) and 4c).

Best regards,

Adriana G. Moreira

Standard Setting Officer (Programme Specialist)
Deputy Assistant to Unit Leader
International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretariat
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO/UN)
Address:  Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy
Telephone: + 39 06 570 55 809
E-mail / Skype:  adriana.moreira@fao.org
Websites: http://www.fao.org | http://www.ippc.int

And just to add it here:

Plants make up 80 percent of the food we eat and produce 98 percent of the oxygen we breathe. The annual value of trade in agricultural products has grown almost three-fold over the past decade, largely in emerging economies and developing countries, reaching USD 1.7 trillion.

However, plants are at risk. Each year an estimated 10–16% of global harvest is lost to plant pests. Plant pests are responsible for the loss of up to 40 percent of global food crops, and for trade losses in agricultural products exceeding USD 220 billion annually.

More plant health pests are appearing earlier and in places where they were never seen before. More plant pests are appearing earlier and in places where they were never seen before due to climate change. Indeed, climate change is having a big impact on plant health. It threatens to reduce both the quality and quantity of crops, leading to lower yields. Rising temperatures are also exacerbating water scarcity, and changing the relationship between pests, plants and pathogens.

Best regards ,
Adriana G. Moreira
(IPPC Secretariat)

Hi All

Please find attached my summary report of the discussions under online forum 4. This has been added in to the draft overall synthesis Junko is preparing

Andy