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Biosecurity officials are promising to take tough action against cargo vessels believed to be infested with brown marmorated stink bug during the upcoming risk season. The risk season runs from September to April, when stink bugs from the northern hemisphere are most likely to crawl into cargo heading to New Zealand. Last season, biosecurity officers intercepted more than 2,500 individual stink bugs at the border, mainly on vessels and cargo.

Outbreak reports on pests and diseases that are exotic to Australia, and are under official national eradication programs. Also provides information about a pest or disease that is no longer under an official eradication program if there is important information that the community still needs to be aware of.
See also: Pests and Diseases Image Library (PaDIL)

The Acting Minister of Environmental Affairs, Mr Derek Hanekom, has announced the release of the National Status Report on Biological Invasions in South Africa [PDF, 5.5 MB]. He noted that "this report represents a milestone for the Republic of South Africa as it is the first comprehensive national-scale assessment of the status of biological invasions and their management anywhere in the world".

Prepared by: National Advisory Committee on Invasive Species, Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad, Comisión Nacional de Áreas Protegidas, Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales. México.

A newly developed index identifies areas of the Mediterranean Sea which are most affected by non-native, invasive alien species introduced through the Suez Canal, by aquaculture or through shipping. The top invaders appear to be algae, according to the JRC study. The Cumulative Impact of Invasive Alien species (CIMPAL) index calculation brings together datasets on IAS distribution with literature information on the impacts of IAS on biodiversity.

Today's announcement by federal agriculture minister David Littleproud to establish an office of environmental biosecurity will better prepare Australia to prevent and respond to new harmful pest, weed and disease invasions. The decision was announced today as part of a $138 million boost in investment for national biosecurity, including $7.6 million over five years to establish the office, headed by an Environmental Biosecurity Protection Officer, within the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.

The New Zealand Department of Conservation (NZDOC) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) officially signed a Declaration of Intent which sees the NZDOC become the first partner of the Pacific Regional Invasive Species Management Support Service (PRISMSS). The PRISMSS is a regional mechanism, which facilitates the scaling up of invasive species management in the Pacific. It provides management support for on-the-ground invasive species actions through streamlining and coordinating activities and invasive species management experts. It has five regional programmes, each with an expert who will lead in their respective field. One of these programmes is 'Resilient Ecosystem-Resilient Communities' in the area of relocation of species to restored habitat, which SPREP and NZDOC will be the leading experts of.

Prime Minister John Key has today announced the Government has adopted the goal of New Zealand becoming Predator Free by 2050. "While once the greatest threat to our native wildlife was poaching and deforestation it is now introduced predators," Mr Key says. These introduced pests also threaten our economy and primary sector, with their total economic cost estimated at around $3.3 billion a year. "That’s why we have adopted this goal. Our ambition is that by 2050 every single part of New Zealand will be completely free of rats, stoats and possums."

See also: Wildlife Diseases in Alberta for more fact sheets