Report prepared for the Experts Meeting Towards the Implementation of a Global Invasive Species
Information Network (GISIN), 6-8 April, 2004. Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Page 70
8/30/2004
Category 3 – Biological characteristics
including diet, reproduction, dispersal, and
biological form;
Category 4 – Characteristics of the invasion
process itself including the estimated date
and the reason for introduction, present
economic uses of the species in the country,
distribution range in Argentina, localities
where it behaves as an invasive, present
tendencies, and population status –
discriminating among a population with a
few individuals reproducing only
sporadically, self-sustaining populations,
and true invaders (those that are spreading
widely in natural environments);
Category 5 – Information about the effects of
the invasion and management strategies
including impacts (on biodiversity, economic
activities, and human health), and
information about control actions that have
been initiated or planned;
Category 6 – Bibliography and other
observations on the species.
Most of the information on invasive
species in Argentina was not
published and had to be collected
through interviews with researchers.
Another of the main challenges in the
development of the database was the lack
of accessible information. Most of the
information on invasive species in Argentina
was not published and had to be collected
through interviews with researchers. Some
fields in the database contain almost no
information at all. For instance, many exotic
species of insects have been recognized as
pests, but there is no available information
about their possible occurrence in natural
environments or if they affect native
species. The development team is also
experiencing funding problems and
difficulties in sustaining the project.
InBiAr Future Development
Future plans for the project include
incorporating a recording and updating
system for information related to the
distribution of invasive species in Argentina.
This may be accomplished by linking the
InBiAr database with a geographic
information system (GIS). Before that can
be done the development team must decide
on the most appropriate geographic scale or
resolution for the data, considering the utility
of the database, baseline availability, and
updating costs. Written and graphic
descriptions will continue to be added to the
database, and the development team will
also continue to strengthen international
links including the strong relationship that
currently exists with Brazil.
Brazilian Invasive Alien Species
Database
In order to help illustrate the problems
associated with biological invaders to the
people of Brazil, a database of information
on the geographic distribution of alien
species in Brazil needed to be developed.
However, the development team wanted to
organize the existing information and start
to collect additional information, but did not
want to invest the time normally associated
with the development of a new database.
Database Design -- Collaborating with
InBiAr
Michael Browne, the manager of the Global
Invasive Species Database online at
provided some advice on how to create a
database and recommended some contacts
in France that were involved in the
development of a plant database. But Brazil
needed a database to cover all groups of
alien species. At this time, the InBiAr
database was launched on the Internet.
The development team contacted Sergio
Zalba (InBiAr) and asked him if they could
use the InBiAr database structure to build
the Brazilian database. Fortunately, he was
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