Preventing the introduction of invasive alien species and managing their impacts is essential to halting biodiversity loss. This issue is also critical to human health, food security, livelihoods and economies.
Invasive alien species are one of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss and species extinctions. Biological invasions also put human health, food security and livelihoods at risk, as highlighted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15.
The rate of new introductions is growing, as the movement of people and goods around the world increases opportunities to transport species to new environments. At the same time, climate change is making areas more hospitable to new species.
USD 1.288 trillion
- minimum economic cost of biological invasions, 1970 - 2017.(Diagne, C., Leroy, B., Vaissière, AC. et al., 2021)
1 in 10
species on the IUCN Red List are threatened by invasive alien species.(The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 2022)
Regulating the trade and movement of invasive alien species is the most effective way to prevent their introduction and spread. Once an invasive species arrives to a new area, it is possible to limit their negative impacts though early detection, monitoring and rapid eradication.
The IUCN Secretariat and Species Survival Commission Invasive Species Specialist Group (SSC ISSG) work together to tackle invasive alien species and their impacts at all stages, from providing essential data and expertise to guide policy-making through to action on the ground. We collaborate with regional and national governance, NGOs and local stakeholders.
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. The Global Invasive Species Database is managed by the IUCN Species Survival Commission Invasive Species Specialist Group (IUCN SSC ISSG) and the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species is an ISSG led initiative. The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM also holds information on the impacts of invasive alien species (IAS), and an analysis of how IAS contribute to species global extinction risk can be found here.
IUCN works closely with a diverse array of organisations and experts globally, with a shared aim of managing invasive alien species (IAS) and preventing further introductions. This work includes providing technical and scientific support to the European Commission (EC) to strengthen the implementation and application of the EU IAS Regulation (No. 1143/2014).
Further collaborations include working as Strategic Partner on the GEF-UNDP-IMO GloFouling Partnership, alongside World Sailing and the International Council of Marine Industry Association, to address biofouling in relation to aquatic IAS.
Considering the impacts of IAS on offshore islands, IUCN also implemented the Inva'Ziles project to produce guidelines on managing IAS in this context. This collaborative work had input by the IUCN SSC ISSG, and networks such as the Western Indian Ocean Network on Invasive Species and the Caribbean Invasive Alien Species Network, hosted by the Indian Ocean Commission and supported by EC funding.
The resources produced from all of these projects are freely available below.
Invasive alien species
