The flora and fauna of the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR) is diverse and has significant ecological, aesthetic, economic and amenity value to the countries and territories of the region.  Increasingly, invasive species are seen as a threat to indigenous biodiversity, through their impacts on natural and semi-natural habitats and ecosystems and are now widely cited as the second greatest global threat to biodiversity, after habitat destruction. The impacts of invasive species can be ecologically complex, operating at ecosystem, habitat, community, species and genetic levels.

The issue of invasive species as an environmental and sustainable development threat is increasingly recognized by a number of treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Article 12 of the Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) Protocol outlines that each Party shall take all appropriate measures to regulate or prohibit intentional or accidental introduction of non-indigenous (=alien) or genetically altered species to the wild that may cause harmful impacts to the natural flora, fauna or other features of the WCR.

Little is known or documented on the status of marine invasive species in the Caribbean beyond a few instances (e.g. Perna viridis - green mussel). Indeed, a 2003 compilation listed of 552 invasive species in the insular Caribbean, only 18 of which were marine (Kairo et al., 2003*). The authors speculated that this was at least in part because technological advances facilitating the reporting of marine species (e.g. improvements in diving equipment) were recent. In addition, there was often difficulty in determining whether newly reported marine species were introduced aliens or merely native species that had formerly gone unobserved. It was concluded that there was a gap in knowledge regarding the status of introduced organisms in the marine environment, and the threat that these may constitute.

Therefore, in keeping with the approved workplan and budget of the regional SPAW programme. UNEP-CAR/RCU has commissioned the Caribbean and Latin America Regional Centre (CLARC) of CAB International (CABI) to undertake a desk study to “produce a compilation of information on national and regional capacities and experiences on marine invasive species management programmes in the Wider Caribbean, including ballast water management”.

CABI-CLARC is currently collating available information from various public domain sources. However, many organizations / agencies in the Caribbean do not have public domain sites and there are thus large information gaps. There are also constant organizational changes within the public administration systems. Thus, in order to collect the necessary updated information for the study, a simple questionnaire (see 'related content' below) is available for your completion. It is  aimed at capturing relevant information based on (up-to-date) facts and figures, often only available within the country(s). This questionnaire is being circulated to all focal points for a three-week period for response. Collated information will be shared with List-serve members for validation in order to minimize errors.

Your cooperation in providing the requested information in a timely manner will facilitate a speedy completion of the list so that further, follow-up activities can be planned in accordance with the needs identified through this study. Completed questionnaires should be sent to Mrs. Vyjayanthi Lopez at v.lopez@cabi.org by March 22, 2006.

Sincerely,
CEP Secretariat.

*http://www.issg.org/database/species/reference_files/Kairo et al, 2003.pdf   or  http://tinyurl.com/awoxl