WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE Phil Boon – Alien Species

Workshop details Attendance by invitation only; those attending should be there to participate in a workshop rather than merely listen to presentations Limit to numbers (maximum 30?) Date – 1-2 April 2008 Venue – Bordeaux (by kind invitation of Cemagref): All surface water types to be included (rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters) Focus of workshop – how to use alien species data in classifying the ecological status of water bodies, Output 1 from workshop: full report from the meeting to be compiled by Alison Lee (Scottish Natural Heritage, Edinburgh) Output 2 from workshop: A shorter summary report to be produced by Phil Boon and Ana Cristina Cardoso containing the main conclusions and recommendations and presented to ECOSTAT for their consideration

Alien Species Workshop Agreed definitions of terms Protocol for defining high ecological status (reference conditions) Protocol for incorporating alien species into assessments of good ecological status Criteria for deciding which species to include in assessment and classification Whether to incorporate alien species into the metrics used to assess each biological element or whether to consider them as a separate pressure Problems faced in distinguishing the influence of alien species from other pressures Potential synergies and conflicts with the Habitats Directive, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and (potentially) the EU Marine Strategy Monitoring methods for recording the presence and impact of alien species Case studies covering the control and management of alien species Potential conflicts between WFD requirements – e.g. removing barriers to migration in order to restore longitudinal connectivity in rivers versus discouraging the spread of alien species