Economic costs of invasive species in Germany

Phillip J Haubrock,Ross N Cuthbert,Franck Courchamp,Andrea Sundermann,Marina Golivets,Christophe Diagne

doi:10.3897/neobiota.67.59502

Abstract

Invasive alien species are a well-known and pervasive threat to global biodiversity and human well-being. Despite substantial impacts of invasive alien species, quantitative syntheses of monetary costs incurred from invasions in national economies are often missing. As a consequence, adequate resource allocation for management responses to invasions has been inhibited, because cost-benefit analysis of management actions cannot be derived. To determine the economic cost of invasions in Germany, a Central European country with the 4th largest GDP in the world, we analysed published data collected from the first global assessment of economic costs of invasive alien species. Overall, economic costs were estimated at US$ 9.8 billion between 1960 and 2020, including US$ 8.9 billion in potential costs. The potential costs were mostly linked to extrapolated costs of the American bullfrog Lithobates catesbeianus, the black cherry Prunus serotina and two mammals: the muskrat Ondatra zibethicus and the American mink Neovison vison. Observed costs were driven by a broad range of taxa and mostly associated with control-related spending and resource damages or losses. We identified a considerable increase in costs relative to previous estimates and through time. Importantly, of the 2,249 alien and 181 invasive species reported in Germany, only 28 species had recorded economic costs. Therefore, total quantifications of invasive species costs here should be seen as very conservative. Our findings highlight a distinct lack of information in the openly-accessible literature and governmental sources on invasion costs at the national level, masking the highly-probable existence of much greater costs of invasions in Germany. In addition, given that invasion rates are increasing, economic costs are expected to further increase. The evaluation and reporting of economic costs need to be improved in order to deliver a basis for effective mitigation and management of invasions on national and international economies.

Highlights

Invasive alien species have been linked to manifold ecological and socioeconomic impacts (Malcolm and Markham 2000; Stigall 2010; Diagne et al 2020) and substantially contribute to the decline in global biodiversity (Blackburn et al 2019), threatening economic enterprises (Paini et al 2016)
To determine the cost of invasions on the German economy, we used data from the InvaCost database (2,419 entries; Diagne et al 2020) on the published economic costs of biological invasions globally, enabling comprehensive quantification of costs associated with invasive species at various spatio-temporal scales
Based on the 71 entries found for invasive species in Germany, the InvaCost database contained 194 annualised cost estimates distributed across twenty taxonomic orders and twenty-eight species, amounting to a total of US$ 9.77 billion or € 8.14 billion (2017 value)

Summary

Introduction

Invasive alien species (hereafter, invasive species) have been linked to manifold ecological and socioeconomic impacts (Malcolm and Markham 2000; Stigall 2010; Diagne et al 2020) and substantially contribute to the decline in global biodiversity (Blackburn et al 2019), threatening economic enterprises (Paini et al 2016). The reported costs from invasive species are often disparate and lack standardisation in monetary terms across spatial and temporal scales. They are subject to spatial, taxonomic and temporal biases. The first comprehensive estimations of invasive species costs were made by Pimentel (2000, 2005) for North America and by Kettunen et al (2009) for Europe, successfully raising awareness of burgeoning invasion costs at regional scales. In both cases, cost estimations omitted cost appraisals for smaller decision-making units, such as those at the level of specific states. As management budgets are often established at the governance level, quantifying and characterising the cost of invasions at the national level is crucial (Hanley and Roberts 2019)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion