Good news; we can start with the LIFE Resilias project

Good news came in during the autumn of 2020! The European Union has approved the application for the LIFE Resilias project. This means that, in the next seven years, partners Stichting Bargerveen and Bosgroep Zuid Nederland will be working on system-based nature restoration to prevent the dominance of invasive alien species (IAS). We will do this together with managers, owners, policy developers and other stakeholders. The aim of the project is to strengthen the resilience of ecosystems in forest and nature areas, so that they are better able to resist the dominance of invasive alien species.

We show what the opportunities and possibilities are for strengthening the resilience of ecosystems in forest and nature areas in such a way that invasive alien species do not have a chance to threaten the native flora and fauna; the Ecosystem Resilience Approach (ERA. This is a unique approach because it places the emphasis on the proper functioning of existing ecosystems, instead of constantly combating alien species. We now know that fighting IAS not only is extremely time-consuming and costly in many cases, but that it is not a long-term solution to control widespread invasive alien species. With the ecosystem resilience approach, we give the alien species a place in the ecosystem, but without causing significant damage to the system and biodiversity.