Economic costs of invasive non-native species in urban areas: An underexplored financial drain

Gustavo Heringer, Romina Fernandez, Alok Bang, Marion Cordonnier (), Ana Novoa, Bernd Lenzner, César Capinha, D Renault (), David Roiz (), Desika Moodley (), Elena Tricarico, Kathrin Holenstein, Melina Kourantidou, Natalia Kirichenko, José Adelino, Romina Dimarco, Thomas W. Bodey, Yuya Watari and Franck Courchamp ()
Additional contact information
Gustavo Heringer: UFLA - Universidade Federal de Lavras = Federal University of Lavras
Romina Fernandez: UNT - Universidad Nacional de Tucumán
Alok Bang: Azim Premji University
Marion Cordonnier: University of Regensburg
Ana Novoa: IB / CAS - Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences - CAS - Czech Academy of Sciences [Prague]
Bernd Lenzner: Universität Wien = University of Vienna
César Capinha: ULISBOA - Universidade de Lisboa = University of Lisbon = Université de Lisbonne
D Renault: ECOBIO - Ecosystèmes, biodiversité, évolution [Rennes] - UR - Université de Rennes - INEE-CNRS - Institut Ecologie et Environnement - CNRS Ecologie et Environnement - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - OSERen - Observatoire des sciences de l'environnement de Rennes - UR - Université de Rennes - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - UR2 - Université de Rennes 2 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, IUF - Institut universitaire de France - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche
David Roiz: MIVEGEC - Maladies infectieuses et vecteurs : écologie, génétique, évolution et contrôle - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - IRD [Occitanie] - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - UM - Université de Montpellier
Desika Moodley: IB / CAS - Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences - CAS - Czech Academy of Sciences [Prague]
Elena Tricarico: UniFI - Università degli Studi di Firenze = University of Florence = Université de Florence
Kathrin Holenstein: CEFE - Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - EPHE - École Pratique des Hautes Études - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - IRD [Occitanie] - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier
Natalia Kirichenko: SibFU - Siberian Federal University
José Adelino: State University of Londrina = Universidade Estadual de Londrina
Romina Dimarco: University of Houston
Thomas W. Bodey: University of Aberdeen
Yuya Watari: FFPRI - Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute
Franck Courchamp: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Urbanization is an important driver of global change associated with a set of environmental modifications that affect the introduction and distribution of invasive non-native species (species with populations transported by humans beyond their natural biogeographic range that established and are spreading in their introduced range; hereafter, invasive species). These species are recognized as a cause of large ecological and economic losses. Nevertheless, the economic impacts of these species in urban areas are still poorly understood. Here we present a synthesis of the reported economic costs of invasive species in urban areas using the global InvaCost database, and demonstrate that costs are likely underestimated. Sixty-one invasive species have been reported to cause a cumulative cost of USD 326.7 billion in urban areas between 1965 and 2021 globally (average annual cost of US$ 5.7 billion). Class Insecta was responsible for >99 % of reported costs (USD 324.4 billion), followed by Aves (USD 1.4 billion), and Magnoliopsida (US$ 494 million). The reported costs were highly uneven with the sum of the five costliest species representing 80 %. Most reported costs were a result of damage (77.3 %), principally impacting public and social welfare (77.9 %) and authorities-stakeholders (20.7 %), and were almost entirely recorded in terrestrial environments (99.9 %). We found costs reported to 24 countries, yet there were 73 countries with records of species that cause urban costs elsewhere but with no urban costs reported themselves. Although covering a relatively small area of the earth surface, urban areas represent about 15 % of the total reported costs attributed to invasive species. These results highlight the conservative nature of the estimates and impacts, revealing important biases present in the evaluation and publication of reported data on costs. Thus, we emphasize the urgent need for more focused assessments of invasive species economic impacts in urban areas.

Keywords: Anthropogenic activity; Biological invasion; Economic impact; InvaCost; Urban ecosystem; Urbanization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-ure
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04429893v1
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Published in Science of the Total Environment, 2024, Science of the Total Environment, 917, pp.170336. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170336⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04429893

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170336

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