Proposed New Classification System for Invasive Species

From University of Washington's, Conservation Magazine

"Triage is a concept that is increasingly infiltrating the hearts and minds of conservationists and conservation researchers around the world. In a world of limited resources, how do we know where to direct our attention?

A group of researchers from across four continents (Australia, Africa, Europe, North America) has described a new sort of classification scheme for understanding the risks to biodiversity on our planet, modeled upon the approach taken by the IUCN Red List. Rather than describing the species most at-risk for extinction, they’re classifying invasive or alien species based on the level of impact they have on the recipient ecosystem. Think of it as an IUCN “Black List.”

“A critical need for invasion biology is the capacity to evaluate, compare, and predict the magnitudes of the impacts of different alien species,” write the researchers, led by Tim M. Blackburn of the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology, “in order to determine and prioritise appropriate actions where necessary.” Preventing or mitigating the consequences of species invasion is, after all, one of the biggest ongoing expenses from within a limited set of conservation resources."

See full article here: http://conservationmagazine.org/2014/05/scientists-propose-new-classification-scheme-for-invasive-species/