Bergmans, Wim

Red Lists are valuable for informing species protection policy and are important as indicators as well as a tool for communication between all those involved in species protection. There are some 3,700 Red Lists in use across Europe, but the approach, aims and criteria used vary widely. A partial result of this is that Red List Species are rarely used for European ecological networks and play a modest role in the updating of the Wild Birds and Habitats directives. Great harmonisation in methodology and approaches of Red Lists would help to enhance impact on European Policy.

Alien invasive species are considered by the Species Survival Commission to be the second largest threat to indigenous species, following habitat destruction. The Netherlands Committee of IUCN has drawn attention to the growing number of invasive species and organized a conference on the issue in September 2000. This publication contains array of papers presented at the Conference on Alien Invasive Species the held in Leiden, the Netherlands. It also contains summaries of the discussions held during the conference and the recommendations emanating from them.

Little attention is given to the state of nature and natural resources in situations of armed conflict. Because of the human disaster involved, three is often a reluctance to focus on the environmental consequences. Nevertheless, there is no reason to assume that nothing can de done to conserve natural resources and biodiversity. Various stakeholders write about their experiences with nature conservation in regions in conflict and various international and Dutch organisations elaborate on their various roles in conflicts and their contribution to the conservation of nature.