Invasive non-native species are one of the top five drivers of global biodiversity loss, cost the GB economy almost £2 billion a year and can even harm our health. Help protect our environment and wildlife for future generations to enjoy by taking part in Invasive Species Week!
Jump to
- Daily themes
- Social media details
- Event ideas for:
- Useful resources
Daily themes
You can follow our daily themes for communications activities, or use your own:
- Monday - what are invasive non-native species (INNS)? It's important to be clear about the difference between non-native and invasive non-native species.
- Tuesday – How are they spread? Are there activities that you or your audience are involved in that are a particular risk?
- Wednesday – Why are they a problem? How do they affect your local environment, sport, industry etc? We'll also be looking at the links between INNS and climate change / biodiversity loss.
- Thursday – What is being done to prevent this? This is an opportunity to share what your organisation is already doing or what you plan to do in future.
- Friday – What can I do? What could your audience, staff, or members do to help? See our ‘5 simple things’ for guidance.
- Saturday and Sunday – Activities to get involved in. Could you host an event? See below for some ideas.
Social media details
Hashtags: #INNSweek or #getINNSvolved.
X: @InvasiveSp
Event ideas
- Give a talk on your work.
- Create an awareness raising display in a common area of your office.
- Run an awareness stand in town, at an event, or at your reserve.
- Hold a training session on biosecurity, identification or recording for your team or others.
- Hold an INNS management taster day for new volunteers.
- Hold a baking competition – download some ID materials on priority species and ask your colleagues to have a go at recreating them in cake form!
- Share Be Plant Wise materials with local garden centres to encourage gardeners to dispose of plants responsibly and avoid them spreading into the wild.
- Arrange a Check Clean Dry demonstration at a local angling / paddling / sailing club to show how easy it is to keep kit free of invasive species.
- Work with a local museum or botanic garden to put together a trail for visitors highlighting INNS in their collection.
- Run a competition or quiz on invasive non-native species.
- Arrange a guided walk on invasive non-native species in your local area.
- Contact local media to raise awareness of invasive non-native species and your work.
- Enlist any local celebrities you know to support Invasive Species Week!
Online activities
If you aren’t able to host an activity you can still play an important role by raising awareness online! Let colleagues, visitors, and volunteers know that Invasive Species Week is happening and encourage them to take part:
- Include articles in your newsletter, website, blog, membership magazine, mailing list. Think about which species are most relevant to you and the audience you’re trying to reach, local or business issues are likely to get their attention.
- Share information on social media. Remember to use #INNSweek on social media.
- Arrange a webinar with a talk about invasive species and how to prevent their spread.
- Livestream from the field or film a survey to show which non-native species your followers may see on a walk.
Useful resources
Free social media resources
- Invasive Species Week: graphics
- Be Plant Wise: Draft posts for social media and landscape and square graphics
- Check Clean Dry: landscape and square graphics
- Individual species:
- Water Primrose graphics.
- Asian hornet graphic English | Welsh
Materials available from us
- ’5 simple things’ poster
- Mini ID guide
- Be Plant Wise materials
- Check Clean Dry materials
- ID sheets for over 60 species
Contact us to order free copies.
Materials from other organisations
- Materials for children and young people, including fantastic resources for children in this Alien Detectives (external link) kit from the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative
- Training materials
- Crayfish game
- Learning & Training | Scottish Invasive Species Initiative including an Engagement Initiative.
- WaREN materials including quizzes, leaflets and videos
Museums, botanic gardens, zoos, aquaria, other outdoor sites
- Educate visitors about what non-native and invasive non-native species are. Most non-native species are harmless but 10-15% become invasive non-native species which spread and harm wildlife and the environment, the economy, and even our health.
- Explain how non-native plants and animals were historically introduced (e.g. stories of plant hunters, or collectors of exotic animals).
- Highlight any plants or animals in your collection which have been impacted by invasive non-native species, for example through:
- Predation
- Competition
- By animal or plant disease spread by invasive species, such as Phytophthora on rhododendron or crayfish plague spread by non-native crayfish
- Highlight any plants or animals in your collection which have had a harmful impact in areas outside their native range.
- Explain why it is important to prevent non-native species from spreading into the wild, and how visitors can help to do that at home (see our “five things”).
- This could be through photos on social media, a virtual video tour, an onsite display, or a treasure hunt / trail for visitors picking out specimens to see.
Environmental charities and Local Action Groups
- Run a volunteering day to remove non-native plants (balsam bashing for example!)
- Livestream or video a survey to show which non-native species are likely to be seen on a walk.
- Contact local media to raise awareness of invasive non-native species and your work.
Schools / youth groups
- Run a competition or quiz to design an invasive species.
- Hold a baking competition to make invasive species cakes!
- Learn about common invasive species near you and go on a hunt to see if you can spot them!
- Create a display for your classroom with information on invasive species and how everyone can help to prevent their spread.