Invasive Alien Species – A European Concern: EU consultation

Invasive Alien Species – A European Concern

Here is an important questionnaire. “The consultation seeks the views of all stakeholders on the scale of IAS problems and how to address them most effectively at EU level.”
I think that everybody who is concerned about the growing international trade of exotic species (plants, fish, …ants) should fill in the questionnaire until 5 May:
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=Invasive

A. Buschinger

For students of ants, one of the ironies of this, at least in the USA, is that so much ant research (sadly, much of it not so good, but also some is quite good) is funded "by" invasive species. I have often quipped that as a Ph.D. student and post-doc, "Fire ants paid my bills for eight years!"

Thanks for the link Dr. Buschinger. It is interesting to see that finally Europe seems to consider the problem. I hope it will go farther than a questionnaire.
I only regret that it is mostly question of invasive species and they don't consider exotic species that could also represent a threat in long term.

It is true that invasive species provide an excellent model to get fundings and also to study ecological/evolutionary questions. However, I don't think I will never be happy to hear about the establishment or the spread of a new species in any area. The lack of legislation in Europe concerning the trade/importation/exportation of exotic species (including invasive) is mostly absent, and it is really scaring when you see what happen there.

Not later than today, I heard about a French kid who got probably a young colony of Solenopsis geminata that his uncle brought him back from Reunion island. If politically both territories are France, I doubt that this is true in the Ant world. Unfortunately, when I have tried to give a sense of responsibility to this 17 years old kid about the risk to have such species, the answered I received were: "it is okay, they are safe in a Nutella jare" and " anyway, many people have exotic animals at their places". Faced with such reactions, I think that it would be much more useful to have a control at the airport on what was leaving Reunion island and information advertisement on the different possible risks.