Early detection of IAS in Flanders:From centralised reporting to effective early warning ; Vroegtijdige detectie van invasieve uitheemse soorten in Vlaanderen:Van gecentraliseerde rapportage tot een effectief vroegtijdig meldsysteem

Tackling the problem once damages become evident is an expensive option with respect to biological invasions. Therefore, rapid detection of potentially harmful IAS is essential. Until recently, Flanders - 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, the ngo Natuurpunt, ANB and INBO, in cooperation with the other Belgian regions,... Mehr ...