Thanks to an online application developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), EU citizens will now be able to help tackle invasive alien species in Europe using their smartphones, the Commission announced on Friday 24 February.
The free smartphone application can be downloaded for Android and iOS. It contains detailed information about and photos of 37 invasive alien animal and plant species in Europe. Citizens will be able to use their phones’ navigation system and cameras to capture images of them.
By sending the exact location of a sighting and a photo via the app, users will contribute to crowdsourcing the maps showing where invasive alien species are to be found and help to build the European alien species information network.
“The beauty of this app is that it turns its users into citizen-scientists, helping to monitor invasive alien species that threaten biodiversity in the EU”, said Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner responsible for the JRC.
The 37 species are those that need to be tackled as a matter of priority because they represent an emerging threat or are causing the greatest damage in Europe. They featured in the first European list of invasive alien species published in July 2016 under the terms of EU Regulation No 1143/2014 (see EUROPE 11593). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)