Economic costs of biological invasions in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Although the high costs of invasion are frequently cited and are a key motivation for environmental management and policy, synthesised data on invasion costs are scarce. Here, we quantify and examine the monetary costs of biological invasions in the United Kingdom (UK) using a global synthesis of reported invasion costs. Invasive alien species have cost the UK economy between US$6.9 billion and $17.6 billion (£5.4 – £13.7 billion) in reported losses and expenses since 1976. Most costs were reported for the entire UK or Great Britain (97%); country-scale cost reporting for the UK's four constituent countries was scarce. Reports of animal invasions were the costliest ($4.7 billion), then plant ($1.3 billion) and fungal ($206.7 million) invasions. Reported damage costs (i.e. excluding management costs) were higher in terrestrial ($4.8 billion) than aquatic or semi-aquatic environments ($29.8 million), and primarily impacted agriculture ($4.2 billion). Invaders with earlier introduction years accrued significantly higher total invasion costs. Invasion costs have been increasing rapidly since 1976, and have cost the UK economy $157.1 million (£122.1 million) per annum, on average. Published information on specific economic costs included only 42 of 520 invaders reported in the UK and was generally available only for the most intensively studied taxa, with just four species contributing 90% of species-specific costs. Given that many of the invasive species lacking cost data are actively managed and have well-recognised impacts, this suggests that cost information is incomplete and that totals presented here are vast underestimates owing to knowledge gaps. Financial expenditure on managing invasions is a fraction (37%) of the costs incurred through damage from invaders; greater investments in UK invasive species research and management are, therefore, urgently required.

The Value of Digitising Natural History Collections

“…One of the ways to value the benefits of digitising the museum's specimen collections would be to understand the costs that are avoided from invasive species by a successful biosecurity response. Studies have aimed to estimate the annual costs to the UK from invasive species and these range at the lower end in the millions (Cuthbert et al 2021) and at the higher end in the billions (Wildlife and Countryside Link 2020b). Biosecurity threats can have significant negative impacts on the use values of ecosystem services such as agriculture, forestry, tourism and recreation as well as economic costs such as to transportation services and human health.…”

Threats at home? Assessing the potential ecological impacts and risks of commonly traded pet fishes

“…The global spread of invasive alien species (IAS) is a major driver of biodiversity loss (IPBES 2019), and can lead to severe ecological, economic, social and health implications (Laverty et al 2015;Cuthbert et al 2021;Diagne et al 2021). Increasing globalisation has facilitated new pathways for IAS to spread (Hulme 2009;Zieritz et al 2016), with the number unlikely to saturate in the future (Seebens et al 2018(Seebens et al , 2021.…”

The economic costs of biological invasions around the world

“…It is also important to note that a lag exists between observed and reported impacts, which is why most papers showed a decrease in costs in recent years. For the UK, where long-term trends were examined, authors show that species with longer resident times had higher costs (Cuthbert et al 2021). Despite reporting mostly recent cost estimates and the observed lag between expenditure and cost reporting, none of the publications in the special issue conclude that economic costs will flatten or decrease in the future.…”

“…Just like cost data were only available for a select few territories and industries, economic cost estimates were only available for a limited number of alien species (at most, 10% of known IAS in a given region). Europe reported costs for the largest number of species: 381 for the continent (Haubrock et al 2021c), 174 for Spain (Angulo et al 2021a), 98 for France (about 10% of known IAS in the region) (Renault et al 2021), 42 for the United Kingdom (about 8% of known IAS in the region) (Cuthbert et al 2021), 28 for Germany (Haubrock et al 2021a), and 15 for Italy (Haubrock et al 2021d). However, besides Europe, numbers of alien species with cost reports were smaller.…”

“…The papers in this special issue also highlight the challenge of comparing economic costs and damages over time. Most of the reported cost estimates are recent, so longterm trends on economic costs of biological invasions are not available in most publications, with the exception of the UK (Cuthbert et al 2021). It is also important to note that a lag exists between observed and reported impacts, which is why most papers showed a decrease in costs in recent years.…”