Neobiota

The 3rd International Conference on Biological Invasions, 'Neobiota - From Ecology to Control' was held on 30 September and 1 October 2004 at the Zoological Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland.

Neobiota, a working group concerned with biological invasions, was founded by 25 German ecologists during an initial meeting in Berlin in 1999. The group aims to collect data on non-native species in Europe, to enhance communication and collaboration between scientists working in various relevant research fields and to coordinate theoretical and applied aspects of this research. The 2-day meeting in Bern was attended by around 200 delegates from most parts of Europe, and also from Canada, Iran and Japan, reflecting the growing European awareness of the threat posed by non-native species to the indigenous fauna and flora. The meeting had a very full programme addressing the ecology of invasive species, covering many taxonomic groups, and impact and risk assessment as well as prevention and control with 40 oral and 84 poster contributions.

Although the main emphasis of this meeting was (as in previous Neobiota meetings) on the ecology of invasive species, new themes were also addressed, including aspects of biological control of invasive species and associated questions concerning risk assessments and legislation. For example, Dirk Babendreier (Agroscope FAL Reckenholz, Zurich) gave an excellent presentation on 'Risk assessment of natural enemies used in inundative biological control' outlining a general framework of a risk assessment methodology for biological control agents developed during the EU Project ERBIC (Evaluating Environmental Risks of Biological Control Introductions into Europe).

The Neobiota meetings series now provides a European forum on invasive alien species and has clearly gained in importance in terms of both number of participants and (European and non-European) countries represented. It has become a key venue to learn about research undertaken in different parts of Europe concerning non-native species, and to establish links with European scientists and practitioners.

Web: www.tu-berlin.de/neobiota  or www.neobiota.unibe.ch

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