Meeting on the Asian hornet @ CIBIO-InBIO

In the context of AliensWatch, the recent work group in biological invasions, CIBIO-InBIO hosted last Wednesday, November 19, 2014, the “Meeting on the Asian hornet”, co-organized with the Beekeepers Association of Entre-Minho e Lima - APIMIL (Associação Apícola de Entre-Minho e Lima).

The general purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Asian hornet’s (Vespa velutina) invasion of continental Portugal, and contribute to the definition of cooperation and information sharing strategies between those involved in dealing with the problem.

Institutions represented in the meeting included municipalities and municipal civil protection services (over 20 municipalities overall), beekeepers associations, agricultural cooperatives and forestry associations.

The debate had a significant participation by the representatives of the institutions, who presented their views of the problem and asked a very interesting set of questions, which were discussed by the forum. At the end, the participants gave a very positive view of the meeting. Overall, the conclusions drawn from the fruitful discussion promoted will allow to outline important measures to address the presence of this emergent invasive species in our country.