Economic costs of biological invasions in Ecuador: the importance of the Galapagos Islands

Ballesteros‐Mejia, Liliana; Angulo, Elena; Diagne, Christophe; Cooke, Brian; Núñez, Martín A.; Courchamp, Franck

doi:10.3897/neobiota.67.59116

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 77 publications

(87 reference statements)

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“…Yet, the direct medical costs resulting from the expanding populations of vector mosquitoes remain poorly documented. High costs for Aedes species were expected in the French territories located in the Americas (French Guiana, Martinique and Guadeloupe), as these species were also the costliest species in the Central and South America region and in specific countries therein such as Ecuador or Argentina (Ballesteros-Mejia et al 2021;Duboscq-Carra et al 2021;Heringer et al 2021). For these French territories in the Americas, Uhart et al (2016) documented 4,574 hospitalisations of approximately 4.3 days each for patients affected by dengue, with a mean cost per stay of US$ 2,849.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological invasions in France: Alarming costs and even more alarming knowledge gaps

Renault¹,

Manfrini²,

Leroy³

et al. 2021

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The ever-increasing number of introduced species profoundly threatens global biodiversity. While the ecological and evolutionary consequences of invasive alien species are receiving increasing attention, their economic impacts have largely remained understudied, especially in France. Here, we aimed at providing a general overview of the monetary losses (damages caused by) and expenditures (management of) associated with invasive alien species in France. This country has a long history of alien species presence, partly due to its long-standing global trade activities, highly developed tourism, and presence of overseas territories in different regions of the globe, resulting in a conservative minimum of 2,750 introduced and invasive alien species. By synthesizing for the first time the monetary losses and expenditures incurred by invasive alien species in Metropolitan France and French overseas territories, we obtained 1,583 cost records for 98 invasive alien species. We found that they caused a conservative total amount ranging between US$ 1,280 million and 11,535 million in costs over the period 1993–2018. We extrapolated costs for species invading France, for which costs were reported in other countries but not in France, which yielded an additional cost ranging from US$ 151 to 3,030 millions. Damage costs were nearly eight times higher than management expenditure. Insects, and in particular the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus and the yellow fever mosquito Ae. aegypti, totalled very high economic costs, followed by non-graminoid terrestrial flowering and aquatic plants (Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Ludwigia sp. and Lagarosiphon major). Over 90% of alien species currently recorded in France had no costs reported in the literature, resulting in high biases in taxonomic, regional and activity sector coverages. To conclude, we report alarming costs and even more alarming knowledge gaps. Our results should raise awareness of the importance of biosecurity and biosurveillance in France, and beyond, as well as the crucial need for better reporting and documentation of cost data.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological invasions in France: Alarming costs and even more alarming knowledge gaps

Renault¹,

Manfrini²,

Leroy³

et al. 2021

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“…For the same reason, Duboscq-Carra et al (2021) found an accumulated cost USD 5.5 million higher than us for Argentina (USD 6,907.6 million vs. USD 6,902.1 million). Conversely, Ballesteros-Mejia et al (2021) found smaller costs for Ecuador because one of the entries with high economic impact was classified in their study as low reliability and therefore removed from the main analyses (USD 86.2 million vs. USD 604.9 million; see details at Ballesteros-Mejia et al 2021). In country-level assessments with limited data availability, it is essential to use all available data for the most comprehensive assessment possible.…”

Section: General Patternsmentioning

confidence: 95%

The economic costs of biological invasions in Central and South America: a first regional assessment

Heringer¹,

Angulo²,

Ballesteros‐Mejia³

et al. 2021

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Invasive alien species are responsible for a high economic impact on many sectors worldwide. Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of studies assessing these impacts in Central and South America. Investigating costs of invasions is important to motivate and guide policy responses by increasing stakeholders’ awareness and identifying action priorities. Here, we used the InvaCost database to investigate (i) the geographical pattern of biological invasion costs across the region; (ii) the monetary expenditure across taxa and impacted sectors; and (iii) the taxa responsible for more than 50% of the costs (hyper-costly taxa) per impacted sector and type of costs. The total of reliable and observed costs reported for biological invasions in Central and South America was USD 102.5 billion between 1975 and 2020, but about 90% of the total costs were reported for only three countries (Brazil, Argentina and Colombia). Costs per species were associated with geographical regions (i.e., South America, Central America and Islands) and with the area of the countries in km2. Most of the expenses were associated with damage costs (97.8%), whereas multiple sectors (77.4%), agriculture (15%) and public and social welfare (4.2%) were the most impacted sectors. Aedes spp. was the hyper-costly taxon for the terrestrial environment (costs of USD 25 billion) and water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) was the hyper-costly taxon for the aquatic environment (USD 179.9 million). Six taxa were classified as hyper-costly for at least one impacted sector and two taxa for at least one type of cost. In conclusion, invasive alien species caused billions of dollars of economic burden in Central and South America, mainly in large countries of South America. Costs caused by invasive alien species were unevenly distributed across countries, impacted sectors, types of costs and taxa (hyper-costly taxa). These results suggest that impacted sectors should drive efforts to manage the species that are draining financial sources.

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“…97% for France, Renault et al 2021; 69% for Germany, Haubrock et al 2021b). For instance, in Central and South America over 40% of cost estimates came from Spanish and Portuguese sources (Heringer et al 2021); and in Ecuador 51.8% of the costs were reported in Spanish (Ballesteros-Mejia et al 2021). An extreme situation is observed in Japan, where all recorded costs were in Japanese (Watari et al 2021), although this was a common trend in Asia (reviewed in Liu et al 2021).…”

Section: General Costs Of Ias In Spainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic costs of invasive alien species in Spain

Angulo¹,

Ballesteros‐Mejia²,

Novoa³

et al. 2021

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Economic assessments for invasive alien species (IAS) are an urgent requirement for informed decision-making, coordinating and motivating the allocation of economic and human resources for the management of IAS. We searched for economic costs of IAS occurring in Spain, by using the InvaCost database and requesting data to regional governments and national authorities, which resulted in over 3,000 cost entries. Considering only robust data (i.e. excluding extrapolated, potential (not-incurred or expected) and low reliability costs), economic costs in Spain were estimated at US$ 261 million (€ 232 million) from 1997 to 2022. There was an increase from US$ 4 million per year before 2000 to US$ 15 million per year in the last years (from € 4 to 13 million). Robust data showed that most reported costs of IAS in Spain (> 90%) corresponded to management costs, while damage costs were only found for 2 out of the 174 species with reported costs. Economic costs relied mostly on regional and inter-regional administrations that spent 66% of costs in post-invasion management actions, contrary to all international guidelines, which recommend investing more in prevention. Regional administrations unequally reported costs. Moreover, 36% of the invasive species, reported to incur management costs, were not included in national or European regulations (i.e. Black Lists), suggesting the need to review these policies; besides, neighbouring regions seem to manage different groups of species. We suggest the need of a national lead agency to effectively coordinate actions, facilitate communication and collaboration amongst regional governments, national agencies and neighbouring countries. This will motivate the continuity of long-lasting management actions and the increase in efforts to report IAS costs by regional and inter-regional managers which will adequately provide information for future budgets gaining management effectiveness.

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Economic costs of biological invasions in Ecuador: the importance of the Galapagos Islands

Cited by 18 publications

References 77 publications

Biological invasions in France: Alarming costs and even more alarming knowledge gaps

Biological invasions in France: Alarming costs and even more alarming knowledge gaps

The economic costs of biological invasions in Central and South America: a first regional assessment

Economic costs of invasive alien species in Spain

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