Coordinated efforts to restrict the movement of IAS require that all nations have access to taxonomic capabilities, information services, and useful tools to support and implement prevention policies and develop effective response strategies. Invasions of non-native species are greatly increasing the need for taxonomic services, while the number of taxonomists and resources for taxonomic capacity building are decreasing worldwide. Initiatives relevant to strengthening IAS information services are proliferating, with agencies and organizations providing information for many purposes and on many geographic scales. These initiatives are not well coordinated. Some are overlapping or duplicative.
Major gaps remain in coverage for some taxonomic groups and regions of the world.
Development of tools to increase taxonomic capacity worldwide. It was hosted by the University of California at Davis, which is providing technical support to various domestic and international efforts for developing and coordinating IAS information services. Workshop presentations assessed the need for a distributed IAS information system, supported by essential taxonomic services, and provided overviews of initiatives at the global level, in eastern and southern Africa, and in the Western Hemisphere. Working sessions focused on IAS information management and technical issues, and on issues at the interface between IAS taxonomic services and information systems. They will also provide guidance for planning pilot regional invasive species hubs in Mexico and South Africa, for which seed grants are being provided through the Environmental Diplomacy Fund of the U.S. Department of State.