Invasive Non-native Species Workshop Report
Image of Giant Hogweed courtesy of GBNNSS
The UK Environmental Observation Framework (UKEOF), in partnership with the Marine Biological Association (MBA), National Biodiversity Network, Promoting the Effective Governance of the Channel Ecosystem (PEGASEAS), and the British Ecological Society (BES) Special Interest Groups in Citizen Science and Invasive Species delivered a workshop designed to facilitate the sharing of best practice in citizen science, with a specific focus on invasive non native species.
The workshop was initiated by the UKEOF Citizen Science Working Group, which provides a forum where partner organisations can share good practice and discuss future needs and plans for using volunteers to collect environmental observation data.
Invasive non-native species management was chosen as a focus for this workshop as it is open and accessible to citizen science, and spans across marine, terrestrial, and freshwater environments. There is also current policy relevance in this area due to the proposed EU Regulation on the prevention and management of the introduction and spread of invasive alien species.
The aims of the workshop were to:
- Share knowledge on how citizen science has been successfully used to support the management of invasive non-native species.
- Discuss how citizen science could be further utilised for invasive non-native species management
- Examine the data available to support invasive non-native species management, and discuss needs and aspirations for the future
The workshop was held on 19th September 2014 at Charles Darwin House in London. The event was well attended with 50 participants from across the public sector, NGOs and academia. A summary of the day, the full agenda and list of attendees can be seen in the report here. All presentations can be found on the UKEOF website.