1. WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE
Phil Boon – Alien Species

2. Workshop details
Attendance by invitation only; those attending should be there to participate in a workshop rather than merely listen to presentations
Limit to numbers (maximum 30?)
Date – 1-2 April 2008
Venue – Bordeaux (by kind invitation of Cemagref):
All surface water types to be included (rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters)
Focus of workshop – how to use alien species data in classifying the ecological status of water bodies,
Output 1 from workshop: full report from the meeting to be compiled by Alison Lee (Scottish Natural Heritage, Edinburgh)
Output 2 from workshop: A shorter summary report to be produced by Phil Boon and Ana Cristina Cardoso containing the main conclusions and recommendations and presented to ECOSTAT for their consideration

3. Alien Species Workshop
Agreed definitions of terms
Protocol for defining high ecological status (reference conditions)
Protocol for incorporating alien species into assessments of good ecological status
Criteria for deciding which species to include in assessment and classification
Whether to incorporate alien species into the metrics used to assess each biological element or whether to consider them as a separate pressure
Problems faced in distinguishing the influence of alien species from other pressures
Potential synergies and conflicts with the Habitats Directive, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and (potentially) the EU Marine Strategy
Monitoring methods for recording the presence and impact of alien species
Case studies covering the control and management of alien species
Potential conflicts between WFD requirements – e.g. removing barriers to migration in order to restore longitudinal connectivity in rivers versus discouraging the spread of alien species