Abstract
Despite the large body of knowledge recognising the impact of biological invasions on biodiversity, their economic impact has been less evaluated. However, the associated economic costs ought to provide useful information on many different aspects to prevent and manage invasions. Here, we describe the economic costs of biological invasions in Japan using InvaCost, a recently-published global database on monetary costs extracted from English and non-English sources, as well as a complementary search, thereby filling a gap in regional knowledge. We focused on the following four dimensions when analysing the economic costs of biological invasions: damage to biodiversity, damage to human livelihood, management for biodiversity and management for human livelihood. Interestingly, there was no information about biological invasion costs for Japan in English, but the Japanese search and our additional survey provided a total of 630 cost entries, with a total economic cost of 728 million USD (2017 value, equivalent to 62 billion JPY). These entries appeared in 33 documents and corresponded to a total of 54 species. We showed that: 1) damage costs from biological invasions tend not to be assessed as frequently as management costs and are more underestimated; 2) despite the numerous entries, an overwhelmingly limited amount of the management budget was allocated to biodiversity conservation compared to protecting human livelihood; 3) budgets have been intensively invested in invasive species management on small islands, which reflects the vulnerability of small island ecosystems and economies to biological invasions; 4) the recorded costs still seem to be greatly underestimated, mainly due to the lack of recording (and potentially limited access to recorded cost information). These findings are not only specific to Japan, but may also be widely applicable to most other countries. The future recording of economic costs will help to close the gap between actual and recorded costs, leading to more realistic guidelines for tackling biological invasions.
Highlights
Biological invasions are known to be a leading cause of biodiversity degradation worldwide (Clavero and Garcia-Berthou 2005; Bellard et al 2016)
Budgets have been intensively invested in invasive species management on islands, which reflects the vulnerability of small island ecosystems and economies to biological invasions
We showed the economic costs of biological invasions in Japan for various taxonomic groups and ecosystems over a period of more than 50 years
Summary
Biological invasions are known to be a leading cause of biodiversity degradation worldwide (Clavero and Garcia-Berthou 2005; Bellard et al 2016). Their economic impacts and costs on several sectors, such as the environment, agriculture and fishery, as well as the economic expenses associated with their management, have been less evaluated (Courchamp et al 2017). The economic evaluation of invasive species may provide useful information at many levels (Dana et al 2013). There have been some economic assessments for regions like the United States (Pimentel et al 2005), Europe (Kettunen et al 2008) and Southeast Asia (Nghiem et al 2013). Comprehensive estimates at the national level – the most important unit for designing and implementing management – are in dire need
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