A global first: inside Europe’s groundbreaking funds against biological invasions

Those who deal with biological invasions are not alone, and they are certainly not left without resources in Europe. The iconic LIFE programme has been historically the primary instrument and main financial pillar for tackling invasive alien species across Europe for decades, even before the relevant Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014 came into force. Its tangible impact is demonstrated by extensive historical documentation, such as the landmark Alien species and nature conservation LIFE report and the 2015 compilation A catalogue of LIFE projects contributing to the management of alien species in the European Union, as well as milestone achievements like the international LIFE Ruddy Duck project, which successfully reduced the invasive ruddy duck population by over 95% to prevent the genetic extinction of the native white-headed duck, the LIFE Montecristo project in Italy, which successfully eradicated black rats in the 10.4 km² Montecristo island via aerial techniques, raising the breeding success of the endemic Yelkouan shearwater from 0% to over 90%, and very recent conservation triumphs like the LIFE RAFT project across Rathlin Island’s 14 km², which successfully achieved the world's first complete eradication of invasive ferrets from an island to safeguard over 250,000 breeding seabirds. 

Video animation © Riccardo Scalera

However, the operational landscape is shifting rapidly. As the deadline for submitting LIFE project proposals approaches, a wave of uncertainty surrounds its future. The European Commission’s proposals for the 2028–2034 financial cycle envision absorbing this programme into a broader European Competitiveness Fund. While interinstitutional negotiations remain wide open and nothing is yet definitive, this ongoing debate over whether these could be the final calls for traditional LIFE grants has pushed another vital financial instrument into the spotlight, drawing intense interest from the conservation world. 

A financial tool expressly dedicated to rapid response to biological invasions has been launched by the European Commission. This extraordinary initiative, implemented through the IUCN Save Our Species program, represents a fast-track mechanism that is potentially one-of-a-kind globally, specifically designed to intercept biological invasions before they spiral out of control. In the conservation world, waiting for absolute scientific certainty is a luxury we simply cannot afford; by the time years of data are gathered, an invasive population has often grown exponentially, rendering eradication impossible and long-term control astronomically expensive. Operating under the philosophy of acting early and fast, this fund injects quick capital into localized, early-stage incursions, offering an environmental and financial return up to twenty-five times higher than long-term management. More than just a grant, it aims to foster a true rapid-response mentality across boundaries. The fund is already powering key projects underway, from combining eDNA with targeted netting to combat American bullfrogs in Belgium and licensing divers to cull venomous lionfish in Croatia, to tackling alien lizard introductions in Crete. 

American bullfrog © Photo: Riccardo Scalera 

In a complex landscape dominated by economic uncertainty and shifting political priorities, this fund stands out as a concrete, accessible lifeline for nature conservation. An opportunity that no practitioner on the frontline of biodiversity protection can afford to miss. Ultimately, this pioneering European experience serves as a powerful, scalable blueprint that can hopefully be exported to other regions worldwide, proving that with coordinated political will and flexible funding, global biodiversity can be defended effectively against the rising threat of biological invasions. To gain a deeper perspective on how these fast-track conservation mechanisms operate in practice, you can view the complete panel discussion on the IUCN SOS Rapid Response webinar. This video features the project managers from the featured case studies discussing the real-world execution, data collection, and community engagement strategies supported by this initiative of the European Commission.

Biological invasions... animated!

(video available in English and Italian version) 

In an attempt to engage a wider audience on invasive alien species and their threat, I thought it was time to try a more "sophisticated" communication tool than a simple article: a video animation. Opentoonz, a free 2D animation software program, provided a great opportunity to invest a reasonable amount of time on this task!

The use of animations for disseminating information on scientific issues is not new, but possibly having one more video of this kind - circulated by such a wide and prestigious organization as the IUCN - will help reaching a greater number of people compared to the other media such as scientific journals or technical reports, which normally would not attract much attention from the general public.

The topic of the video is clearly focused on invasive alien species (IAS), which are one of the most important direct drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem service changes, and constitute the greatest threat to fragile ecosystems such as islands. It is now widely accepted that the best way to deal with the threat of IAS is through the implementation of adequate prevention and mitigation measures. For this purpose, the IUCN - in collaboration with the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) developed a system to classify alien species, according to their impact on biodiversity at all levels. This system is called EICAT, which stands for Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa. The overall approach is similar to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which over the years has become the international standard for classifying threatened species. 

In EICAT, species are classified in a simple, objective and transparent way according to the magnitude of their impact, from Massive to Minimal concern. This information is critical to plan and prioritise policy and management measures to address the threat posed by biological invasions, and EICAT is expected to become a standard protocol to categorise such a threat. 

In this way, EICAT will support scientists and policy makers to gain a better understanding of the impacts caused by different alien species in different regions of the world. The system has been already applied on some groups of species at the global level, as in the case of mammals, birds and amphibians. Some countries also started to use EICAT to identify national priorities, like in the case of Sweden (which used a simplified EICAT protocol to screen approximately 5,000 species to identify those potentially harmful to local biodiversity). 

Before being formally published IUCN all EICAT assessments need to be validated by the relevant authority. After the validation, they will be all available in GISD, the Global Invasive Species Database managed by the ISSG.

Europe keeps investing in invasive alien species

Over 7 million euro are now available for projects aiming at increasing knowledge and understanding on biological invasions, as well as alien species impact in relation to both public perception and climate and other environmental changes. These are the themes specifically addressed by the new BiodivERsA 2012-2013 Pan-European call for research proposals specifically dedicated to "Invasive Species and Biological Invasions". The deadline for mandatory pre-registration is 14th of December 2012.

The European partners in the BiodivERsA network have already joined important efforts to organize and fund a pan-European call for research projects on invasive alien species (IAS) and biological invasions in the past. For example, within the 2008 joint call the BiodivERsA partners had funded the project RACE - Risk Assessment of Chytridiomycosis to European Amphibian Biodiversity. This project focuses on Chytridiomycosis, an amphibian disease responsible of causing die-offs and even extinctions of many amphibian populations around the world. The disease is caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (also called Bd for short), a fungus that for this reason is also considered one of the 100 World’s Worst Invasive Alien Species by the IUCN/SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group. In this context RACE aims at assessing the risk that Bd poses to European amphibians and at developing tools and protocols to enable surveillance of Bd across Europe. RACE also aims at improving the understanding where in situ mitigation and captive-breeding conservation efforts are most necessary to preserve European amphibian biodiversity. The findings should then be formalised into a European Threat Abatement Plan (ETAP).

African clawed frogs, a potential vector of Bd. Photo © Riccardo Scalera

Many research projects focusing on invasive alien species have been financed so far in Europe under the auspices of the various Framework Programmes (a scheme which also BiodivERsA belongs to). For example, according to the result of a specific study published on Biological Invasion journal, focusing on the period 1994-2006, the EC has funded a total of 90 research projects dealing with IAS, for a total budget of more than 88 million euro. Of these, 70 projects focused entirely on IAS and the other 20 had only a part of the activities related to this issue. That is a very important contribution to face the threat of biological invasions despite the lack of either a specific strategy or a dedicated financial instrument in the EU. Beside, this response complies with the priorities of the Sixth Environment Action Programme of the European Community for 2002-2012, and shows that concrete steps are being undertaken in the right direction to support the European Commission’s policy according to which IAS are recognised as a key pressure on biodiversity and a priority for action.