Abstract
The Iberian society has a limited understanding of the threats posed by invasive alien species (IAS) in aquatic ecosystems. This lack of knowledge and awareness about IAS problems hampers any management policy proposed by public administration and stakeholders, contributing to missing an IAS management strategy. We present the midterm outcomes of the Environmental Governance and Information LIFE project—LIFE INVASAQUA—that will run between 2018 and 2023 in the Iberian Peninsula. The main goal of INVASQUA is to increase the Iberian public and stakeholders’ awareness of aquatic IAS problems and to develop tools that will improve an efficient early warning and rapid response (EWRR) framework for new IAS in freshwater and estuarine habitats in the Iberian Peninsula. We focus on new challenges and outcomes of the project to explore some of the problems and solutions encountered in the project implementation.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, F.J.O.-P. and R.O.d.A.; writing, F.J.O.-P.; funding acquisition, F.J.O.-P., R.O.d.A., F.R., P.M.A., F.C. (Fernando Cobo), A.P., R.M., C.N. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This project received funds from the LIFE Programme (LIFE17 GIE/ES/000515).
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
Data Availability Statement
Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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