7. Issues and Challenges in Aquatic Invasive Alien Species - Seafdec

FOREWORD
MS. FAAZAZ
ABD. LATIFF
Team Leader for
Technical Working Group (TWG)
–Aquatic Invasive Alien Species
Article 8(h) of the CBD states that Contracting
Parties to the Convention should, as far as possible
and appropriate, prevent the introduction of, control
or eradicate those alien species which threaten
ecosystems, habitats or species.
The Government has given high priority setting for
alien species. Many workshops, meetings, seminars
and trainings have been conducted which pertained
to quarantine, health, import and export of alien
species in ASEAN over the years. Among these were
‘Asia Regional Technical Guidelines on Health
Management for the Responsible Movement of Live
Aquatic Animals, Beijing Consensus and
Implementation Strategy, Meeting on Current Status
of Transboundary Fish Diseases in Southeast Asia:
Occurrence, Surveillance, Research, and Training
in June 2004 in Manila organised by AQD SEAFDEC
and Fish Disease Project of the Government of
Japan-Trust Fund.
A workshop on ‘Building Capacity to Combat Impacts
of Aquatic Invasive Alien Species and Associated
Transboundary Pathogens in ASEAN Countries’ was
held in Penang, Malaysia in July 2004, supported by
US, Department of State, hosted by DoF Malaysia
and organized by NACA in collaboration with ASEAN,
FAO, the World Fish Centre and Penang State. There
were 2 other workshops in the region in 2002 and
2003 which dealt on prevention and management
of IAS and International Mechanisms for the control
and responsible use of alien species in Aquatic
Ecosystems
Following initiatives made by various governmental
agencies in Malaysia such as Department of
Agriculture, Department of Veterinary, Department
of Health, Department of Forestry and Department
of Environment and non-governmental agencies to
prevent, control and mitigate on IAS, there is also a
need to formulate a plan of action spesifically on IAS
in both marine and inland water ecosystems. This
plan of action has been formulated with the first
meeting held in mid 2005 by members of the TWG
IAS as listed in Appendix 7 and followed by series of
meetings to strengthen the document. The
document highlights some technical measures
including strategies to overcome problems in
preventing, controlling and mitigating of issues
pertaining to alien species which include information
on the biological parameters of many species and
their identification, public awareness, expertise,
coordination effort and funds. We hope this plan will
provide some basic information on aquatic IAS in
Malaysia in order to balance conservation and
management of aquatic resources with increasing
economic growth for the benefits of our future
generation.
On behalf of the TWG, I would like to take this
vvopportunity to sincerely thank the Honourable Dato’
Junaidi bin Che Ayub for his continued
encouragement, support and guidance throughout
the formulation of this action plan. A special thank to
Mr. Raja Mohammad Noordin bin Raja Omar in his
capacity as the Chairman of CBD for DoF, Mr. Ismail
Awang Kechik (Director of Fisheries Research
Institute), Mr. Ismail Ishak for their constructive
supports and criticisms on the document and Ms.
Mahyam Mohd. Isa for her advisory role in IAS issues
and guidance in documenting this plan. Finally,
I would like to thank the Malaysia IAS Technical
Working Group from various divisions of the
Department of Fisheries (DoF), Department of
Marine and Malaysian Institute of Maritime (MIMA)
for their continued commitments and works in their
contribution to finalize this document.
Thank You
Faazaz Abd. Latiff
Leader of TWG - Invasive Alien Fish Species
Department of Fisheries Malaysia
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