Research Summary: Priced out - economic reasons to control invasions
This research summary provides current estimates of the incredible costs of biological invasions around the world...strong motivation to be proactive about new invasions with climate change.
Summary
Invasive species managers are well aware of the economic resources needed to control invasions. With climate change shifting the invasive species landscape, our need for additional capacity and resources will only grow. Convincing donors and funding agencies to expand proactive prevention and control could be easier if we can point to a robust estimate of the financial costs. Diagne et al. (2021) provide just that. Using a new database called InvaCost, they estimate costs in two broad categories: damages (crop losses, habitat degradation, loss of ecosystem services) and management (removal, restoration, other mitigation efforts). For 2017 (the most recent year of the database), they estimate the cost of invasive species globally to be greater than $80 billion US dollars. Since 1970 (the start of the database), global costs have been at least $1.3 trillion US dollars.
Take home points
The combined costs of invasive species damage and management have been tripling every decade and are expected to continue to rise.
Invertebrates (mostly insect pests) have the highest costs, followed by plants, and vertebrates. However, the economic costs of invertebrates are also much more likely to have been studied than other taxa.
Better reporting and estimation of economic costs (especially for underreported taxa such as plants, molluscs, and herptiles) can help raise public and stakeholder awareness of the economic impacts of invasive species.
Management implications
In the 1970s, dollars spent on management were greater than economic damage of invasives. By 2017, economic damages are an estimated 10x larger than the cost of management. This might explain why some managers feel like they are falling behind.
Researchers need help to create more accurate estimates of economic costs. In Table 1, the authors provide some suggestions for reporting, including keeping records of estimated direct costs and identifying who pays for them.
Want to check out the database for reports of economic costs for your favorite species? The InvaCost database is open access and available here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-00586-z
Keywords
Impact studies; economic costs of invasive species; reporting; global costs