Population increase, over-consumption and galloping urbanisation have multiple consequences, including the increasing rarity of certain species of plants and animals, pollution, the over exploitation of land and the sea, as well as the spread of invasive alien species.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

Organised by conservation groups IUCN and Birdlife, the high-level debate at the European Parliament in Brussels will consider measures that could be taken within the EU policy framework to mitigate the present and future threats from invasive alien species.

BBC: Report tracks threats from Europe's alien invasion

"Because of this ongoing environmental catastrophe, we need to put all of the management options on the table to try to find ways of reducing the rate at which our biodiversity succumbs to the impacts of invasive alien species, " he says.

BBC: Trumpets of outrage in the outback