Damage costs from invasive species exceed management expenditure in nations experiencing lower economic activity

Corey Bradshaw (), Philip Hulme, Emma Hudgins, Brian Leung, Melina Kourantidou, Pierre Courtois, Anna Turbelin, Shana Mcdermott, Katherine Lee, Danish Ahmed, Guillaume Latombe, Alok Bang, Thomas Bodey, Phillip Haubrock, Frédérik Saltré and Franck Courchamp ()
Additional contact information
Corey Bradshaw: Flinders University [Adelaide, Australia]
Philip Hulme: Lincoln University [Nouvelle-Zélande]
Emma Hudgins: McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]
Brian Leung: McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]
Melina Kourantidou: AMURE - Aménagement des Usages des Ressources et des Espaces marins et littoraux - Centre de droit et d'économie de la mer - IFREMER - Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer - UBO - Université de Brest - IUEM - Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - UBO - Université de Brest - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Anna Turbelin: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Shana Mcdermott: Trinity University
Katherine Lee: University of Idaho [Moscow, USA]
Danish Ahmed: GUST - Gulf University for Science and Technology
Guillaume Latombe: Universität Wien = University of Vienna, Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research - Universität Wien = University of Vienna, The University of Edinburgh
Alok Bang: Azim Premji University
Thomas Bodey: University of Aberdeen
Phillip Haubrock: Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters [University of South Bohemia] - University of South Bohemia, GUST - Gulf University for Science and Technology, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum [Frankfurt] - Senckenberg – Leibniz Institution for Biodiversity and Earth System Research - Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung - Leibniz Association
Frédérik Saltré: Flinders University [Adelaide, Australia]
Franck Courchamp: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris-Saclay

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Abstract: While data on biological invasions and their economic toll are increasingly available, drivers of susceptibility to damage and cost-effectiveness of management in reducing long-term costs remain poorly understood. We used data describing the damage costs of, and management expenditure on, invasive species among 56 nations between 2000 and 2020 reported in the InvaCost database to test the overarching hypothesis that higher-income nations and those with higher trade volume have a higher efficiency to limit the damage incurred by invasive species by spending relatively more on management. We also tested whether nations with (i) more corruption have a reduced capacity to manage invasive species, leading to relatively higher damage costs, (ii) more educated citizens or greater technological and scientific output allow for improved incentives and ability to manage invasive species, thereby reducing relative damage costs, and (iii) economies based on higher primary resource dependencies (e.g., agriculture) are at greater risk of incurring high costs of invasive species, and so all other conditions being equal, have higher relative damage costs compared to management expenditure. By focusing on the ratio between damage costs and management expenditure, we analyse the willingness of countries to invest in management as a function of the extent of the damage suffered. We show that economic activity, measured by the volume of trade, is the main determinant of this ratio — the greater the volume, the smaller the ratio. We also found a higher rate of increase in the damage:management ratio as a country's proportion of total land area devoted to agriculture increased, suggesting that a higher economic dependency on agriculture predisposes a country to greater damage costs from invasive species over time. When considering the proportion of total costs identified as damage-related, results indicated that higher government investment in education produced higher proportional damage, and lower corruption and lower trade volume both reduced proportional damage. Our overall results suggest that wealthier nations with high per-capita imports of goods and services are more susceptible to damage, but also have a greater capacity to reduce it, and are therefore less threatened by biological invasions than countries with fewer resources and lower imports.

Keywords: Management capacity; Invasion science; Primary production; Inva Cost; Damage susceptibility; International trade; Cost effectiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04554467v1
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Published in Ecological Economics, 2024, 220, pp.108166. ⟨10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108166⟩

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Journal Article: Damage costs from invasive species exceed management expenditure in nations experiencing lower economic activity (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04554467

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108166

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