Invasive Alien Species in South - Southeast Asia

Lanka helped to check the accuracy of the scientific names listed in country papers. Their hard work helped to increase the reliability of the information in this document and is much appreciated. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of any government or other body represented in the meeting, nor its sponsors. Reproduction of this publication for education or other non-commercial purposes is authorized without prior written permission from the copyright holder provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Preface This report is one of three products of a workshop entitled, Prevention and Management of Invasive Alien Species: Forging Cooperation throughout South and Southeast Asia. The meeting was held by the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) in Bangkok, Thailand on 14-16 August 2002. The other products include a workshop report, including a regional statement on IAS, available at www.gisp.org. This document is the first country-driven effort to assess the status of invasive alien species (IAS) and share information on IAS national programmes in the South-Southeast Asian region. Each country that participated in the regional workshop was invited to submit a chapter that included information on known IAS, existing strategies for preventing and managing IAS, objectives and contact information for departments/ministeries concerned with IAS, priorities for future work on IAS, list of in-country IAS experts, and a list of relevant references and websites. Participants were asked to provide information relevant to both agriculture and environmental sectors and to work across multiple ministeries when possible. The ability of each country to provide this information varied considerably, and depended upon the amount of information already available on IAS problems in their country, existence of in-country technical expertise, and the priority attached to IAS issues by the current government. A few delegations were unable to contribute to this document and are in the process of assessing IAS status in their countries. The data provided within this document reflects the most up-to-date information available to the authors of each country report at the time of writing. These authors and the GISP make no claims that this information is complete or scientifically accurate (e.g., scientific names may not always have been correctly assigned to non-native species), although the authors and GISP have attempted to ensure as useful and reliable …