scholarly journals Species on the move: Stowaways and contaminants cause the greatest economic impacts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna J Turbelin ◽  
Christophe Diagne ◽  
Emma J Hudgins ◽  
Desika Moodley ◽  
Melina Kourantidou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alien Species ◽  
Average Cost ◽  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
Hierarchical Classification ◽  
Introduction Pathways ◽  
Impact Pathways ◽  
Species Invasions ◽  
Spatially Distributed ◽  
Socio Economic Impact ◽  
The Cost

Abstract Introduction pathways play a pivotal role in the success of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) – the subset of alien species that have a negative environmental and/or socio-economic impact. Pathways refer to the fundamental mechanism that leads to the introduction of a species outside of its native range – marking the beginning of all alien species invasions. Increased knowledge of pathways is essential to help reduce the flow and impacts of IAS and ultimately improve their management. Here we use the InvaCost database, a comprehensive repository on the global monetary impacts of invasive alien species, combined with the CBD hierarchical classification of introduction pathways to address four key questions: (i) Are particular IAS introduction pathways economically impactful? (ii) How are costs taxonomically and spatially distributed across pathways? (iii) Are there differences in costs between species introduced intentionally and unintentionally? and (iv) is there a relationship between the number of possible introduction pathways of IAS and their costs? We found first that both the total and average cost of species introduced through ‘Stowaways’ (US$144.9bn; US$89.4m) and ‘Contaminants’ pathways (US$99.3bn; US$158.0m) were more costly than species introduced primarily through ‘Escape’ (US$87.4bn; US$25.4m) and ‘Release’ (US$64.2bn; US$16.4m). Second, insects drove the costs of unintentional introductions whilst mammals drove the costs of intentional introductions; ‘Stowaways’ had the highest costs in Asia, Central America, North America and Diverse/Unspecified regions, whilst Antarctic-Subantarctic and Oceania incurred the greatest costs from species introduced through ‘Release’. Third, the cost of species introduced unintentionally is more than double the cost of species introduced intentionally ($192bn vs. $90bn). Equally, species introduced unintentionally cost more on average than species introduced intentionally in terms of damage, management, and mixed costs. Finally, the total and average cost of IAS was not related to their number of introduction pathways. Our findings provide important material for the targeting of priority pathways - something that will be critical in prioritising limited management budgets to combat the current acceleration of species invasions.

scholarly journals Policy-relevant indicators for invasive alien species assessment and reporting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melodie A. McGeoch ◽  
Eduardo Arlé ◽  
Jonathan Belmaker ◽  
Yehezkel Buba ◽  
David A. Clarke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Alien Species ◽  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
Species Invasions ◽  
Status And Trends ◽  
The Status ◽  
Impact Risk ◽  
Status Information ◽  
Key Dimensions

AbstractInvasive alien species are repeatedly shown to be amongst the top threats to biodiversity globally. Robust indicators for measuring the status and trends of biological invasions are lacking, but essential for monitoring biological invasions and the effectiveness of interventions. Here, we formulate and demonstrate three such indicators that capture the key dimensions of species invasions, each a significant and necessary advance to inform invasive alien species policy targets: 1) Rate of Invasive Alien Species Spread, which provides modelled rates of ongoing introductions of species based on invasion discovery and reporting. 2) Impact Risk, that estimates invasive alien species impacts on the environment in space and time and provides a basis for nationally targeted prioritization of where best to invest in management efforts. 3) Status Information on invasive alien species, that tracks improvement in the essential dimensions of information needed to guide relevant policy and data collection and in support of assessing invasive alien species spread and impact. We show how proximal, model-informed status and trend indicators on invasive alien species can provide more effective global (and national) reporting on biological invasions, and how countries can contribute to supporting these indicators.

scholarly journals A new approach to horizon-scanning: identifying potentially invasive alien species and their introduction pathways

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Matthews ◽  
Ruud Beringen ◽  
Raymond Creemers ◽  
Hans Hollander ◽  
Nils van Kessel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alien Species ◽  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Introduction Pathways ◽  
Horizon Scanning

scholarly journals Towards estimating the economic cost of invasive alien species to African crop and livestock production

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
René Eschen ◽  
Tim Beale ◽  
J. Miguel Bonnin ◽  
Kate L. Constantine ◽  
Solomon Duah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alien Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Distribution Data ◽  
Yield Losses ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Labour Costs ◽  
The Cost

Abstract Background Invasive alien species (IAS) cause significant economic losses in all parts of the world. Although IAS are widespread in Africa and cause serious negative impacts on livelihoods as a result of yield losses and increased labour costs associated with IAS management, few data on the impacts are available in the literature and the magnitude and extent of the costs are largely unknown. We estimated the cost of IAS to agriculture, the most important economic sector in Africa. Methods Data on the monetary costs of IAS to mainland Africa as well as information about the presence and abundance of the most important IAS were collected through literature review and an online survey among a wide variety of stakeholders. Using this and additional data from publicly available sources we estimated yield losses and management costs due to IAS in agriculture for individual countries and the entire continent. Where the data allowed, the costs for selected IAS or crops were estimated separately. The estimates were extrapolated using production and distribution data and/or matching of agro-ecological zones. Results The total estimated annual cost of IAS to agriculture in Africa is USD 3.66 Tn. Yield losses, reductions in livestock derived income and IAS management costs, mainly labour costs, constitute the majority of the estimated cost (ca. 1, < 1 and 99 percent, respectively). The IAS causing the highest yield losses were Phthorimaea absoluta (USD 11.4 Bn) and Spodoptera frugiperda (USD 9.4 Bn). Conclusions This study reveals the extent and scale of the economic impacts of IAS in the agricultural sector in one of the least studied continents. Although the cost estimate presented here is significant, IAS also cause major costs to other sectors which could not be assessed due to data deficit. The results highlight the need for pre-emptive management options, such as prevention and early detection and rapid response to reduce huge potential future costs, as well as measures that contribute to large-scale control of widely established IAS at little cost to farmers and other affected land users, to reduce losses and improve livelihoods.

scholarly journals Economic Incentives for Controlling Trade-Related Biological Invasions in the Great Lakes

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard D. Horan ◽  
Frank Lupi
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Alien Species ◽  
Ballast Water ◽  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Biological Pollution ◽  
Invasion Pathway ◽  
The Cost

Ballast water from commercial ships engaged in international trade has been implicated as the primary invasion pathway in over 60 percent of new introductions of invasive alien species (IAS) in the Great Lakes since 1960. Recent policies have recognized that IAS are a form of biological pollution and have become focused on preventing new introductions. Given that emissions-based incentives are infeasible for the case of biological emissions, we investigate the cost-effectiveness of various performance proxy-based and technology-based economic incentives to reduce the threat of new invasions of Ponto-Caspian species in the Great Lakes.

scholarly journals Risk Management Assessment Improves the Cost-Effectiveness of Invasive Species Prioritisation

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1320
Author(s):  
Peter A. Robertson ◽  
Aileen C. Mill ◽  
Tim Adriaens ◽  
Niall Moore ◽  
Sonia Vanderhoeven ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Alien Species ◽  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
Unit Cost ◽  
Relative Reduction ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Species Prioritisation ◽  
The Cost

International agreements commit nations to control or eradicate invasive alien species. The scale of this challenge exceeds available resources and so it is essential to prioritise the management of invasive alien species. Species prioritisation for management typically involves a hierarchy of processes that consider the likelihood and scale of impact (risk assessment) and the feasibility, costs and effectiveness of management (risk management). Risk assessment processes are widely used, risk management less so, but are a crucial component of resource decision making. To assess the cost-effectiveness of prioritisation, we considered 26 high-risk species considered for eradication from Great Britain (GB) with pre-existing risk assessment and risk management outputs. We extracted scores to reflect the overall risk to GB posed by the species, together with the estimated cost and the overall feasibility of eradication. We used these to consider the relative reduction in risk per unit cost when managing prioritised species based on different criteria. We showed that the cost-effectiveness of prioritisation within our sample using risk assessment scores alone, performed no better than a random ranking of the species. In contrast, prioritisation including management feasibility produced nearly two orders of magnitude improvement compared to random. We conclude that basing management actions on priorities based solely on risk assessment without considering management feasibility risks the inefficient use of limited resources. In this study, the cost-effectiveness of species prioritisation for action was greatly increased by the inclusion of risk management assessment.

scholarly journals Managing biological invasions: the cost of inaction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danish Ali Ahmed ◽  
Emma Judith Hudgins ◽  
Ross Noel Cuthbert ◽  
Melina Kourantidou ◽  
Christophe Diagne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Alien Species ◽  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
Economic Impacts ◽  
Logistic Growth ◽  
Effective Prevention ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Damage Data ◽  
Additional Costs ◽  
The Cost

Abstract Ecological and socio-economic impacts from biological invasions are rapidly escalating worldwide. While effective management underpins impact mitigation, such actions are often delayed, insufficient or entirely absent. Presently, management delays emanate from a lack of monetary rationale to invest at early invasion stages, which precludes effective prevention. Here, we provide such rationale by developing a conceptual model, based on logistic growth, to quantify the cost of inaction towards invasive alien species under varying time delays and management efforts. Further, we apply the resulting model to management and damage data from a relatively data-rich genus (Aedes mosquitoes). Our model confirms that rapid management interventions following invasion drastically minimise costs, and that higher management investments lead to much steeper cost declines. Further, we identify a ‘runaway’ point beyond which costs of inaction slowly approach saturation. Any management action during this phase can be considered severely delayed, resulting in substantial losses. For Aedes, we estimated that a management delay of just 20 years could have accrued additional costs of at least US$ 842 million in 40 years, whereas in the case of no management, inaction costs could have been approximately three-fold higher, totalling US$ 2433 million. These results highlight the need for more timely management of invasive alien species by demonstrating how early investments rapidly reduce long-term economic impacts.

Exploration-Stage Implementation Variation

2014 ◽  
Vol 222 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Romney ◽  
Nathaniel Israel ◽  
Danijela Zlatevski
Keyword(s):  
Parent Training ◽  
Average Cost ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Training Group ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Triple P ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Parent Training Program ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Cost

The present study examines the effect of agency-level implementation variation on the cost-effectiveness of an evidence-based parent training program (Positive Parenting Program: “Triple P”). Staff from six community-based agencies participated in a five-day training to prepare them to deliver a 12-week Triple P parent training group to caregivers. Prior to the training, administrators and staff from four of the agencies completed a site readiness process intended to prepare them for the implementation demands of successfully delivering the group, while the other two agencies did not complete the process. Following the delivery of each agency’s first Triple P group, the graduation rate and average cost per class graduate were calculated. The average cost-per-graduate was over seven times higher for the two agencies that had not completed the readiness process than for the four completing agencies ($7,811 vs. $1,052). The contrast in costs was due to high participant attrition in the Triple P groups delivered by the two agencies that did not complete the readiness process. The odds of Triple P participants graduating were 12.2 times greater for those in groups run by sites that had completed the readiness process. This differential attrition was not accounted for by between-group differences in participant characteristics at pretest. While the natural design of this study limits the ability to empirically test all alternative explanations, these findings indicate a striking cost savings for sites completing the readiness process and support the thoughtful application of readiness procedures in the early stages of an implementation initiative.

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