Abstract

BackgroundSound decisions on control actions for established invasive alien species (IAS) require information on ecological as well as socio-economic impact of the species and of its management. Cost-benefit analysis provides part of this information, yet has received relatively little attention in the scientific literature on IAS.MethodsWe apply a bio-economic model in a cost-benefit analysis framework to greater Canada goose Branta canadensis, an IAS with documented social, economic and ecological impacts in Flanders (northern Belgium). We compared a business as usual (BAU) scenario which involved non-coordinated hunting and egg destruction with an enhanced scenario based on a continuation of these activities but supplemented with coordinated capture of moulting birds. To assess population growth under the BAU scenario we fitted a logistic growth model to the observed pre-moult capture population. Projected damage costs included water eutrophication and damage to cultivated grasslands and were calculated for all scenarios. Management costs of the moult captures were based on a representative average of the actual cost of planning and executing moult captures.ResultsComparing the scenarios with different capture rates, different costs for eutrophication and various discount rates, showed avoided damage costs were in the range of 21.15 M€ to 45.82 M€ under the moult capture scenario. The lowest value for the avoided costs applied to the scenario where we lowered the capture rate by 10%. The highest value occurred in the scenario where we lowered the real discount rate from 4% to 2.5%.DiscussionThe reduction in damage costs always outweighed the additional management costs of moult captures. Therefore, additional coordinated moult captures could be applied to limit the negative economic impact of greater Canada goose at a regional scale. We further discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our approach and its potential application to other IAS.

Highlights

  • Invasive alien species (IAS) can severely impact on society causing ecological, economic and human health impacts (e.g., Olson, 2006; Pejchar & Mooney, 2009; Vila et al, 2010; Schindler et al, 2015; Roy et al, 2016)

  • Depending on the unit costs for eutrophication, we found a difference in present values (PV) for the business as usual (BAU) and enhanced scenario of 24,370 k and 36,300 k (Table 3)

  • Model output showed that with the higher capture rate the PV was about 14 times lower under the enhanced scenario compared to the BAU scenario

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Summary

Introduction

Invasive alien species (IAS) can severely impact on society causing ecological, economic and human health impacts (e.g., Olson, 2006; Pejchar & Mooney, 2009; Vila et al, 2010; Schindler et al, 2015; Roy et al, 2016). Annual damage and control costs associated with a set of economically relevant IAS were conservatively estimated at 12 billion for Europe and £1.7 billion for Great Britain (Kettunen et al, 2008; Scalera, 2010; Williams et al, 2010). Sound decisions on control actions for established invasive alien species (IAS) require information on ecological as well as socio-economic impact of the species and of its management. We apply a bio-economic model in a cost-benefit analysis framework to greater Canada goose Branta canadensis, an IAS with documented social, economic and ecological impacts in Flanders (northern Belgium). The lowest value for the avoided costs applied to the scenario where we lowered the capture rate by 10%. Additional coordinated moult captures could be applied to limit the negative economic impact of greater Canada goose at a regional scale.

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