Welcome

Harmonia⁺ and Pandora^(⁺) were created as parts of the Alien Alert project, on horizon scanning for new pests and invasive species in Belgium and neighbouring areas.

The Alien Alert project was performed by a consortium of eight Belgian scientific institutions coordinated by the Belgian Biodiversity Platform and funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office.

The following risk screening tools for potentially invasive organisms are available:

• Harmonia+

  Harmonia+ is a first-line risk assessment scheme for potentially invasive species. It present a series of questions concerning an organism, the answers of which need to be provided by one or more assessors. Harmonia+ is described in full here http://ias.biodiversity.be/harmoniaplus. Additional information is described by D'hondt et al. (manuscript).

• Pandora+

  Pandora+ is a first-line risk assessment scheme for pathogenic or parasitic (micro)organisms that may be of concern to environmental, plant, animal or human health. It refers directly to a particular host organism, and as such, is designed to support assessments within Harmonia+.

• Pandora

  Pandora is a first-line risk assessment scheme for the risks posed by pathogenic and parasitic (micro)organisms. It is the counterpart of Harmonia , for potentially invasive (macro)organisms.