Outil de conservation

Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa

The Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) is the IUCN global standard for measuring the severity of environmental impacts caused by animals, fungi and plants living outside their natural range.

Invasive alien species

Invasive alien species are one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss and species extinctions, and one of the most serious and rapidly growing threats to food, health and livelihood security.

The EICAT Categories and Criteria provide a simple, objective and transparent method to classify alien species into one of eight categories, according to the severity of their environmental impact. This is determined by the extent to which native species are affected and whether the impact is reversible.

A tool to help prioritise invasive alien species

EICAT is a key tool for prioritising alien species that could lead to the most harmful environmental impacts, helping to make the best use of resources to prevent or limit their negative consequences. It alerts scientists, conservation practitioners and policy makers to the potential consequences of alien species, guides the development of prevention and mitigation measures, and assists in the prioritisation of management actions.

EICAT can be applied at the national, regional and global levels. All global EICAT assessments will be published on IUCN’s Global Invasive Species Database.

EICAT Governance

The EICAT Authority is the governing body coordinating the overall EICAT assessment process, comprised of individuals with expertise relating to specific taxonomic groups or geographic regions. Many members of the EICAT Authority are members of the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG), but they may also be members of other SSC specialist groups, independent networks or other organisations. The EICAT Authority is responsible for carrying out the majority of assessments and implementing the review process.

EICAT Authority Members

The EICAT Unit is the administrative body that processes EICAT assessments, comprised of individuals from the IUCN SSC ISSG and the IUCN Biodiversity Assessment and Knowledge Team. Among other actions, the EICAT Unit is responsible for performing consistency checks to assessments, facilitating the reporting of status and trends in impacts, managing petitions and overseeing proposals for revisions to the EICAT Categories and Criteria or Guidelines.

Using EICAT

To conduct an EICAT assessment, please refer to the EICAT Categories and Criteria (please click here for the Spanish version), the EICAT Guidelines document and download the Reporting Template.