Cooperative Initiative on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) on Islands

The ultimate goal of the Cooperative Initiative on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) on Islands is to facilitate cooperation in key areas of invasive alien species management on islands. As a result managers, practitioners and policy makers will have increased capacity to define IAS problems, design solutions and implement them, at community, national and subregional level. This in turn, will generate a significant improvement in the conservation of island biological diversity.



Islands and other geographically and evolutionary isolated places are particularly vulnerable to the threat posed by IAS to biodiversity due to high levels of endemism and high numbers of threatened species. The rate of extinctions of native species has been higher on islands than anywhere else in the world. Threats to biodiversity also affect the ecosystem functions, and the cultural and economic use made of biodiversity by local communities. However, while islands are more vulnerable to invasions by alien species, they also present special opportunities for preventing new alien invasions and for eradicating or controlling existing IAS.



The development of this initiative will facilitate further progress on an international scale,

starting in the South Pacific sub-region and then expanding to a global approach by applying this sub-regional experience more widely. It will eventually encompass all islands that have significant biodiversity, including small island developing States, other island countries and any countries with islands.



* Objectives of the initiative are

* Build local, national and sub-regional capacity

* Systematically develop better techniques

* Share knowledge, skills and techniques internationally

* Make better use of existing information