Early detection of IAS in Flanders:From centralised reporting to effective early warning

Rapid detection of potentially harmful invasive alien species (IAS) is essential to avoid future invasions and management costs. Until recently, the Flemish region (Flanders, Northern Belgium) - and by extension Belgium - had no dedicated portal for reporting observations of such species, despite the high political priority and ongoing current (inter) national initiatives. In 2011, the Agency for Nature and Forest and the Institute for Nature and Forest Research initiated a pilot. For some notorious IAS, an early warning system was launched through the widely used online recording platform www... Mehr ...