Chair: Paul Walton, RSPB
Policy and Campaigns Manager: Zoe Davies, Link
The Link Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) Working Group continues to advocate for INNS legislation to be properly implemented, resourced and enforced, now and after the UK leaves the EU.
For Invasive Species Week 2019, Link hosted a panel session in the House of Lords with Minister for Biosecurity Lord Gardiner, Chair of the EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee Lord Teverson and invasive species expert Professor Helen Roy on the issue invasive species and Brexit. Over 20 MPs and Peers heard from and questioned our panellists on the challenges the UK faces in maintaining and enhancing its biosecurity outside of the EU in the face of limited resources, uncertainty around access to international surveillance systems and intensification of the invasive species threat through global trade and climate change. You can read Link’s position on the issue in full in our Parliamentary briefing. Lord Gardiner spoke of how Government has converted European legislation into domestic law and its plans for enforcement, and he praised the action already being taken by dedicated individuals on the ground. Professor Roy even brought two Asian hornet specimens, caught recently in the UK, for Parliamentarians to see.
Following up on Link’s written evidence, Dr. Paul Walton, Chair of Link’s INNS Working Group, gave oral evidence in May to the Environmental Audit Committee for its invasive species inquiry. Among other things, Paul highlighted that prevention is much more cost effective than cure with regard to invasive species – particularly as climate change improves conditions for many species to establish- and that islands and their species are highly vulnerable to invasion and require special protection.
Throughout Invasive Species Week, Link also raised public awareness of invasive species with its interactive StoryMap and a series of blogs focusing on the impact of INNS on different habitats in the UK including freshwater and riparian, urban, marine, woodland and bogs and islands. Take a look at #InvasivesWeek to catch up on all the action.
For further information, contact Zoe Davies, Link’s Policy and Campaigns Manager.
Last updated: 25 June 2019
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