2 December 2009
Dear Colleagues:
Re: The International Congress on Biological Invasions, 2-6 November 2009,
On behalf of International Organizing Committee, International Scientific Committee, Local Organizing Committee and Financial Committee, we sincerely thank you and your organization for your generous contributions, invaluable efforts and great support towards the successful organization of the Congress.
The congress has been declared an ‘overwhelming success’, with more than 500 participants from 44 countries. We had two very high profile plenary sessions with keynote speeches, country reports, case studies and international organization reports, 14 interesting symposia covering basic research, technology development and knowledge management etc, two useful pre-congress workshops, namely “Managing invasive species risks: from assessment of risks to management and recovery” and “Canada-China Taxonomy Workshop”, and a satellite meeting on “Bio-resource utilization of invasive plants” as well as an informative poster session. Additionally, there were the highly enjoyable banquets, cultural shows, tea ceremony and side visits. Indeed this was a memorable Congress in the City of ‘Good Luck and Good Fortune’.
ICBI 2009 concluded with unanimous support for the ‘Fuzhou Declaration’ which has 3 main outcomes as follows:
· Call on Governments, International Organisations and Conventions to reaffirm their commitment to implementing Article 8h of the CBD.
· Establishment of an International Expert Group on Biological Invasions to provide scientific, technical and policy guidance to ICBI
· Recommendation that ICBI becomes a regular international event on biological invasions (4 year interval)
It has been a tremendous synergy of fantastic efforts by all over these two years and we should be proud and gratified that we have put together such a meaningful and fruitful international meeting. Through the ICBI we have come together and forged wonderful comradeship, collaboration and linkages which we hope will continue and lead on to more partnerships in the near future.
Thank you once again, best wishes and best regards.
Yours sincerely,
