It makes sense for Australia to be part of a large global effort
to make it easier to identify, assess and respond to invasive
species, according to The Hon John Kerin AM, a member of the
Board of The Crawford Fund and Chair of the Interim Advisory
Committee to the Australian Weed Research Centre. Mr Kerin will
be chairing a Crawford Fund workshop on 11 March 2009 to help
raise awareness of, and encourage Australian support for, a
project to build the world’s most comprehensive encyclopaedia of
invasive species – the Invasive Species Compendium (ISC). The
workshop is also being supported by the Cooperative Research
Centre for National Plant Biosecurity (CRCNPB). Invasive species
are the second greatest threat to global biodiversity next to
habitat destruction costing an estimated global US$1.5 trillion
per year in environmental and economic damage. The Invasive
Species Compendium is led by CABI (a not-for-profit, science-
based development and information organisation) and supported by
an International Develop