GISIN History

The first major meeting to consider the global character of the invasive alien species (IAS) threat was held in Trondheim, Norway in 1996, convened by the Norwegian government and various United Nations (UN) organizations, which recommended development of a Global StrategJanuary 11, 2010 of this meeting, the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) was formed in 1997. In 2001, the GISP issued a 'Call to Action' at the 6th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Science , Technology and Technical Advice (SBSTTA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), held in Montreal, Canada. The Call to Action described the effects of IAS as a global problem and challenged governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-government organizations, the private sector and all other interested parties to take steps to implement the Global Strategy on Invasive Alien Species.

After issuing the Call to Action in 2001, the GISP initiated and coordinated seven regional workshops to assess the global IAS threat, impact, and needs. These workshops resulted in several declarations (e.g. the Kirstenbosch and Davis declarations from South Africa and the US in 2000 & 2001; the Russia-US declaration, the Copenhagen declaration from the nations of the Nordic/Baltic region and the Brasilia declaration from South American nations in 2001). Reports delivered by the nations involved in these workshops identified the need for information sharing, capacity building, financial support, research, expertise and other resources for addressing the IAS threat.

In 2003, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) was approached by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs and asked to coordinate a workshop or gathering of experts to explore the implementation of a GISIN.

The Experts Meeting on Implementation of a GISIN was convened from April 6th to the 8th in 2004, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Four goals for the meeting included:-

• creation of an online community to support global collaboration,
• identification and agreement on common data types for global database cross-searching and interoperability,
• creation of a proposal funding toolkit containing such things as example proposals, proposal-writing guidance, suggested funding sources and other related information, as a capacity-building task, and
• a review and listing of existing online IAS databases

The Experts Meeting on the Implementation of a Global Invasive Species Information Network was successfully adjourned 8 April 2004. Substantial progress was made by the 76 participants in agreeing on the types and formats of information to be collected by participating online invasive species databases. Twenty-six countries were represented by participants at the meeting. Many alliances and tentative agreements were made among members of these nations and organizations. Participants forged new collaboration efforts and plans to exchange invasive species information, share database structures, and link existing databases. The charter of the GISIN, known as The Baltimore Declaration was released in June 2004.

An interim steering committee was chosen and will develop a work plan and define the next steps. In addition to being posted on this Web site and the GISIN Invasive Species online community at http://my.nbii.gov/, the transcripts of presentations (with permission), details of the agreements, and questions raised were used to create the workshop's proceedings, published in August, 2004.

NOTE: If you would like to become a member of the GISIN Invasive Species online community and participate in this initiative, please contact Annie Simpson (asimpson@usgs.gov) or Elizabeth Sellers (esellers@usgs.gov).

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Last updated: January 11, 2010