Project name: Development of manuals, action plans and plans for the management of invasive alien species – IAS: Group 2 Development of manual and action plans on the pathways of invasive alien species
Client: Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development
Period: 08/2019 – 02/2021
Location: Croatia
The project included the development of an Action Plan on introduction routes of IAS by transport and an Action Plan on introduction routes of IAS by spontaneous expansion, as well as the development, stakeholder analysis, analysis of harmonization of European and Croatian legislation and the development of a Manual on IAS recognition and treatment.
As part of the project, a comprehensive analysis of existing action plans on IAS pathways, analysis of existing professional and scientific literature, analysis of relevant results of analysis of pathways of unintentional introduction and spread of IAS, stakeholder analysis and stakeholder involvement plan were made.
Action plans were made in a participatory way, i.e. with the involvement of stakeholders in the development process. Also, moderated and facilitated all-day workshops were organized with stakeholders defined through stakeholder analysis. A total of 10 workshops were held which were a combination of physical and online workshops, but also additional working meetings (Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka, Pula, Karlovac, Split, Vukovar). Physical workshops included coffee breaks and lunch.
As part of the development of the Action Plans, an analysis of the existing codes of good practice was made and a proposal for the development of new ones was made in terms of preventing unintentional introduction and dissemination of IAS. Measures have been defined to prevent the spread of IAS that are present and those that are not present in Croatia. Activities to prevent the introduction and spread of IAS in various sectors (in nature protection, forestry, hunting, horticulture and utilities, agriculture, transport and water management) were also defined. The action plans also define the time implementation (frequency), the financial cost of implementation as well as the stakeholders involved in the implementation for each activity.
A Manual on the identification and handling of IAS was developed for employees of competent authorities in the control system, for the purpose of identifying goods containing IAS, or acting in the event of their discovery, and can be used by other stakeholders. Detailed descriptions were made for a total of 100 species (the number includes 66 species from the Union list and additional 44 species from the proposal for the national black list which include a description of the species and habitat, natural distribution area, introduction area, introduction routes, similar types, related goods, photo documentation and illustrations (for each type). The manual presents an analysis of legislation within the IAS and defines instructions for identifying goods and consignments that may contain IAS, instructions for conduct in case of detection/discovery of IAS (conduct at the border, the conduct of nature protection inspector, the conduct of hunting and forestry inspector, police officers), permits to solve transport problems IAS from third countries.
