Research

• International research
• Research in Belgium

This EU FP6 Integrated Network has a module dedicated to biological invasions next to climate change, environmental chemicals and loss of pollinators.
The invasion module aims:

• to assess both the risks and the impacts of invasive species
• to incorporate environmental, historical, cultural, and biogeographic data into assessments
• to introduce a hierarchical perspective of ecosystem vulnerability by examining invasions at local and regional scales
• to undertake a multidisciplinary approach, that involves stakeholders, ecologists, statisticians, modellers, and economists, to the problem of ecosystem vulnerability to invasions

This EU FP6 aims :

• to create an inventory of invasive species that threaten European terrestrial, fresh-water and marine environments
• to assess and summarise the ecological, economic and health risks and impacts of the most widespread and/or noxious invasive species in Europe
• to provide the basis for prevention and control of biological invasions through the understanding of the environmental, social, economic and other factors involved.

The use of exotic organisms bears some risk to the local natural environment, and the responsible use of biological control methods requires that Europe take a scientific approach to the introduction of exotic biological control agents. ERBIC aims to develop and standardise scientific methods and protocols to evaluate the risk of introduced natural enemies to indigenous non-target species.
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This EU FP5 research project aims to :

• raise awareness and advance existing understanding of the problems posed by invasive plants in the Mediterranean
• to develop management strategies which aid the conservation of native habitat and species.

• Link to all invasive species related projects in BioBel :
• As a preparatory work to the "Science Facing Aliens" conference, the Belgian Biodiversity Platform analysed the Belgian research linked to the conference theme :