Sunday, December 20, 2009

Don’t Let Invasive Biofuel Crops Attack Your Country, Warn Top Scientists

The dangers that invasive breed affectation to the apple couldn’t be added serious They are one of the top causes of all-around breed loss, they can abuse livelihoods and animal health, and they amount us billions in ascendancy and acknowledgment efforts. We artlessly cannot acquiesce to angle by and do annihilation in the face of this threat. Prevention is bigger than the cure We charge to stop invasions afore they occur. The biofuel industry is a almost new abstraction so we accept a different befalling to act aboriginal and get advanced of the bold – we mustn’t bandy that away.

Bonn, Germany (Vocus/PRWEB ) May 20, 2008 -- Countries should abstain burying crops for biofuels that angle a top accident of acceptable invasive species, according to a address appear today.

The Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) has articular all the crops currently accepting acclimated or advised for biofuel assembly and ranked them according to the accident they affectation of acceptable invasive species.

The report, Biofuel Crops and Non Native Species: Mitigating the risks of Invasion calls on countries to backpack out accident assessments afore they bulb biofuel crops. It urges governments to use low-risk breed of crops for biofuels and acquaint new controls to administer invasive species.

"The dangers that invasive breed affectation to the apple couldn’t be added serious," says Sarah Simons, Executive Director of GISP. "They are one of the top causes of all-around breed loss, they can abuse livelihoods and animal health, and they amount us billions in ascendancy and acknowledgment efforts. We artlessly cannot acquiesce to angle by and do annihilation in the face of this threat."

It is estimated that the accident from invasive breed costs the apple added than $1.4 abundance annually – 5 percent of the all-around economy. The US abandoned spends $120 billion annually on the ascendancy and impacts of added than 800 invasive breed infestations.

The behemothic reed (Arundo donax), for example, is a proposed biofuel crop from West Asia which is already invasive in locations of North and Central America. Naturally flammable, it increases the likelihood of wildfires – a blackmail to both bodies and built-in breed in places such as California. In South Africa, the behemothic reed is advised a civic botheration as it drinks 2,000 liters of baptize per continuing beat of growth, aggressive baptize aegis for the nation’s growing animal population.

Many of the bulb breed accepting advised for biofuels accept the abeyant to become invasive if alien to new areas, the address warns. Few governments accept able systems in abode to appraise risks of aggression or accommodate them already they occur, and developing countries are the a lot of vulnerable.

"Prevention is bigger than the cure," says Geoffrey Howard, IUCN’s Global Invasive Species Coordinator. "We charge to stop invasions afore they occur. The biofuel industry is a almost new abstraction so we accept a different befalling to act aboriginal and get advanced of the bold – we mustn’t bandy that away."

The African oil approach is addition archetype of the calamity an invasive breed can wreak. It is recommended for biodiesel and has already become invasive in locations of Brazil, axis areas of threatened backwoods from a affluent mix of copse and bulb activity into a akin band of approach leaves.

A affair of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity currently accepting captivated in Bonn, Germany, represents the best befalling in a decade to crop all-around action adjoin invasive species. GISP is calling on assembly to admit the dangers invasive breed could cause and acclaim accident assessments afore biofuel crops are planted. It aswell calls on the accurate association to conduct added desperately-needed analysis into this topic.

For the abounding address amuse visit: http://www.gisp.org

For added information, amuse contact:

 

    Sarah Halls, IUCN Media Relations Officer, Tel: +41 22 999 0127; Mobile: +41 79 528 3486; Email: sarah.halls@iucn.org. Cristina Mestre, The Nature Conservancy, Tel: 703-841-8779; Email: cmestre@tnc.org. About GISP
    GISP, the Global Invasive Species Programme, is an all-embracing affiliation committed to arrest the all-around blackmail of invasive species. Founded by CABI, IUCN, the South African National Biodiversity Institute and the Nature Conservancy, GISP aims to conserve biodiversity and sustain livelihoods by aspersing the advance and appulse of invasive adverse species. www.gisp.org

    About our partners:

    IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, helps the apple acquisition businesslike solutions to our a lot of acute ambiance and development challenges by acknowledging accurate research; managing acreage projects all over the world; and bringing governments, NGOs, the UN, all-embracing conventions and companies calm to advance policy, laws and best practice.

    CABI is a not-for-profit all-embracing alignment aforetime accepted as the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux which now operates artlessly as CABI. The GISP secretariat is hosted by CABI Africa, based in Nairobi. CABI has been alive in invasive breed for about 100 years and is currently alive on 60 invasive plants. www.cabi.org

    South African National Biodiversity Institute was accustomed in 2004 through the signing of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act 10. The Act broadcast the authorization of SANBI's forerunner, the National Botanical Institute to cover responsibilities apropos to the abounding assortment of South Africa's fauna and flora, and complete on the internationally admired programmes in conservation, research, apprenticeship and company casework developed over the accomplished century. www.sanbi.org

    The Nature Conservancy is a arch attention alignment alive about the apple to assure ecologically important acreage and amnion for attributes and people. To date, the Conservancy and its added than one actor associates accept been amenable for the aegis of added than 18 actor acreage in the United States and accept helped bottle added than 117 actor acreage in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.

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