On the 13th of July 2022 in Brussels, the 2nd joint workshop Life MICA/Life RIPARIAS took place. About 30 participants from different countries and institutions dealing with invasive alien species (IAS) attended the hybrid event.
Photo 1: Invitation page
The workshop started with a plenary session in which the Life MICA and the Life RIPARIAS project were presented to the auditorium. Thereafter, two break out groups were created and participants could join either the group of the MICA project or that of the RIPARIAS project.
The aim of the Life MICA parallel session was to discuss transfer and replication opportunities for the innovative techniques for monitoring and management of IAS developed by Life MICA: smart camera traps, eDNA analysis, DNA mapping and smart life traps were presented.
There was high interest in how to use the Agouti platform for analysis of camera trap images with the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for other projects dealing with IAS. The high adaptability of the AI to be trained in recognizing other IAS was pointed out and the possible reduction in work effort for a broad scale monitoring with camera traps was discussed.
Furthermore, the e-DNA method was intensively discussed by the participants who asked about the suitability of the sampling protocol and analysis method for detection of other IAS or protected species in water samples.
Interest in the prototype of the smart life traps was manifested by participants, who were curious about the operating principle of the AI and the suitability in areas in which protected (non-target) species occur.
Photo 2: One of the Mentimeter questions with results
At the end of the break out session, participants were asked to answer some ‘Mentimeter’ questions about transfer and replication opportunities for each presented method and to share their opinion about which other invasive or non-invasive species could be monitored and managed using the techniques of the Life MICA project.
The day before, on the 12th of July, the follow-up ‘Conference on the management of vertebrate invasive alien species of Union concern – incorporating animal welfare’ coordinated by the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN) had taken place. Here you can find the very interesting documentation and reports.
> EASIN page
> EC IAS page
