Approach of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization to the Evaluation and Management of Risks Presented by Invasive Alien Plants - Management of Invasive Weeds - page 314

http://www.cbd.int/default.shtml. In its Article 8(h), the CBD asks its members “to
prevent the introduction of, control or eradicate those alien species which threaten
ecosystems, habitats or species” as far as possible and when appropriate.
In 2002, at the sixth meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties in The
Hague, “ Guiding Principles for the prevention of introduction and mitigation of
impacts of alien species that threaten ecosystems, habitats or species ” were adopted
(CBD 2002). This text provides further advice to members on Article 8(h) of the
Convention. More recently, the eighth CBD Conference of the Parties held in Brazil
in 2006 encouraged members to work at a regional level and to ensure close inter-
agency cooperation at the national and regional levels among the various sectors
(Ministries of Environment and of Agriculture, traders), as well as sharing informa-
tion necessary for risk analysis (COP 8 2006).

16.2.4 Cooperation Between the IPPC and the CBD

Since activities of the CBD in relation to invasive alien species correspond to a certain
degree with those of the IPPC for those invasive alien species that are harmful to plants,
cooperation between the CBD and the IPPC has been established since 2004. This
avoids overlap and duplication of work between the two Conventions. The respective
Secretariats participate in each other's meetings. A Memorandum of Understanding has
been established between CBD and IPPC and the revision of ISPMs no. 5 and no. 11
(see previous paragraph) was accordingly done in consultation.
The relationship between the CBD guiding principles on invasive alien species
and the IPPC and its ISPMs has been described by Schrader and Unger (2003) and
Lopian (2005), and will be the subject of a new supplement to the Glossary of phy-
tosanitary terms , whose purpose is to give an interpretation of the terminology of
the Convention on Biological Diversity in relation to the Glossary of phytosanitary
terms . Essentially, the CBD defines an “alien” as a “species … introduced outside
its natural … distribution” and an invasive alien species as “an alien species whose
introduction and/or spread threatens biological diversity” (annex footnote 57, CBD
2002). The Glossary of phytosanitary terms defines a quarantine pest as “a pest of
potential economic importance to the area endangered thereby and not yet present
there, or present but not widely distributed and being officially controlled”.
Evidently, the two definitions cover similar ground. The main differences are that,
unless “biodiversity” is taken in a very wide sense to include agro-ecosystems, a
quarantine pest does not necessarily threaten biodiversity and may only affect agri-
culture (Lopian 2005). On the other hand, according to the CBD, an invasive alien
species has already been introduced. If it has also spread to the point that it is
widely distributed, it can no longer be considered as a quarantine pest. Thus, ISPM
no. 11 on “ Pest risk analysis for quarantine pests including analysis of environmen-
tal risks and living modified organisms ” applies to invasive alien plants that have
been introduced but are not widely distributed. It also applies to potentially invasive
plants that have not yet been introduced.