Economic Loss of Pine Wood Nematode Disease in Mainland China from 1998 to 2017

Jingjing Zhao,Guofei Fang,Jixia Huang,Jun Yan

doi:10.3390/f11101042

Abstract

The occurrence and prevalence of pine wood nematode disease has had a great impact on China’s forestry production and ecological environment, but the quantitative evaluation of the economic losses of this biological disease is lacking from a macro-geographic scale and long-term series perspective. This study establishes a pine wood nematode disease economic loss evaluation index system, covering the loss of natural ecology, landscape aesthetics and economic production, and quantitatively evaluates the economic losses of pine wood nematode disease in mainland China at a provincial level from 1998 to 2017. The results show that the economic losses of the pine wood nematode disease in China showed a fluctuant rising trend from 1998, since 2013, it has entered a full-scale outbreak phase, and since 2015, the economic loss has increased significantly, with a growth rate higher than 40%. The average annual total economic loss is CNY 7.17 billion, of which the direct economic losses is CNY 1.53 billion, and the indirect economic losses is CNY 5.64 billion. The loss of forest material resources, the expenditure of ineffective forest management expenditure and prevention and control expenditure were CNY 817 million, CNY 649 million, and CNY 67 million, respectively. Regulate service value loss, support service value loss and cultural service loss are CNY 3.95 billion, CNY 1.41 billion, CNY 276 million, respectively. East China and South China suffered the most due to pine wood nematode disease, and the economic loss of these regions accounted for 79.9% of the total national economic losses. Among them, Zhejiang Province, Guangdong Province and Jiangsu Province lost CNY 2.14 billion, CNY 1.81 billion, and CNY 1.22 billion, respectively, accounting for 26.8%, 22.7% and 15.3% of the total national economic loss.

Highlights

Pests and diseases are the main cause of forest damage [1], and the economic losses caused mainly include the loss of forest assets [2], the discounted expenditure of the disposal, removal and replacement of damaged trees [3,4], the loss of forest recreational and landscape value [5] and the loss of carbon sinks [6]
According to the fluctuation trend of the disease occurrence area, the pine wood nematode disease situation is divided into three stages in China
This study aims to quantitatively evaluate the economic losses from disease caused by pine wood nematode in mainland China from 1998 to 2017

Summary

Introduction

Pests and diseases are the main cause of forest damage [1], and the economic losses caused mainly include the loss of forest assets [2], the discounted expenditure of the disposal, removal and replacement of damaged trees [3,4], the loss of forest recreational and landscape value [5] and the loss of carbon sinks [6]. China’s average annual economic losses caused by forest pests and diseases in 1996–2010 exceeded CNY 100 billion, including direct economic losses and loss of ecological service value [8,9,10]. Pine wood nematode disease is native to North America, and is mainly distributed in Portugal and Spain in North America, East Asia and Europe [11,12,13]. Pine wood nematode disease has caused massive deaths of pine trees, leading to severe economic losses [14,15]. After nearly 40 years of spreading, the area infected by pine wood nematode disease in 2019 expanded to 588 counties of 18 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) in the country [16]. The middle temperate zone has become the front line for pine wood nematode disease prevention and control [17]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion