Awareness raising on alien species in Slovenia

In Slovenia invasive alien species ( IAS ) have been overlooked for many years. Despite a growing body of evidence about the negative impacts of IAS , little attention has been given to the issue on a policy level. Legislation and institutional support have also been poorly developed. IAS have only been studied by a few experts. Among the general public, even the term ‘alien species’ was virtually unknown until recently. In 2008 the first nation‐wide awareness project on IAS , Project Thuja, was launched. During this project many general awareness raising activities were carried out including a travelling exhibition and a brochure for hobby gardeners. A well‐attended conference on IAS brought together stakeholders from governmental and non‐governmental sectors. In April 2012 a follow up project Thuja 2 started. This was directed to target groups (fishermen, pet keepers, pet shop employees, gardeners), to aim to change their practices and thereby limit further introductions of IAS . A web‐based system to report observations of IAS was also established. Through these activities, alien species have been recognised as a serious threat to biodiversity by various stakeholder groups. However, as the projects were carried out by non‐governmental organisations, making improvements on a policy level was limited to expert proposals. These have not yet been implemented and a national policy on IAS is still to be developed.