Economic costs of invasive alien species in Mexico

Abstract

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a leading driver of biodiversity loss worldwide, and have negative impacts on human societies. In most countries, available data on monetary costs of IAS are scarce, while being crucial for developing efficient management. In this study, we use available data collected from the first global assessment of economic costs of IAS (InvaCost) to quantify and describe the economic cost of invasions in Mexico. This description was made across a range of taxonomic, sectoral and temporal variables, and allowed us to identify knowledge gaps within these areas. Overall, costs of invasions in Mexico were estimated at US$ 5.33 billion (i.e., 109) ($MXN 100.84 billion) during the period from 1992 to 2019. Biological invasion costs were split relatively evenly between aquatic (US$ 1.16 billion; $MXN 21.95 billion) and terrestrial (US$ 1.17 billion; $MXN 22.14 billion) invaders, but semi-aquatic taxa dominated (US$ 2.99 billion; $MXN 56.57 billion), with costs from damages to resources four times higher than those from management of IAS (US$ 4.29 billion vs. US$ 1.04 billion; $MXN 81.17 billion vs $MXN 19.68 billion). The agriculture sector incurred the highest costs (US$ 1.01 billion; $MXN 19.1 billion), followed by fisheries (US$ 517.24 million; $MXN 9.79 billion), whilst most other costs simultaneously impacted mixed or unspecified sectors. When defined, costs to Mexican natural protected areas were mostly associated with management actions in terrestrial environments, and were incurred through official authorities via monitoring, control or eradication. On natural protected islands, mainly mammals were managed (i.e. rodents, cats and goats), to a total of US$ 3.99 million, while feral cows, fishes and plants were mostly managed in protected mainland areas, amounting to US$ 1.11 million in total. Pterygoplichthys sp. and Eichhornia crassipes caused the greatest reported costs in unprotected aquatic ecosystems in Mexico, and Bemisia tabaci to terrestrial systems. Although reported damages from invasions appeared to be fluctuating through time in Mexico, management spending has been increasing. These estimates, albeit conservative, underline the monetary pressure that invasions put on the Mexican economy, calling for urgent actions alongside comprehensive cost reporting in national states such as Mexico.

Economic costs of invasive alien species in Spain

“…There are generally few reports on the global economic impacts of invasive species in aquatic ecosystems (Lovell et al 2006). However, compared with the whole InvaCost database (Diagne et al 2020b), our estimates for these ecosystems are exceptionally high (but see the case of Mexico, Rico-Sánchez et al 2021). A global assessment of all data included in InvaCost reported that the monetary costs of aquatic invasive species only constituted 5% of the total reported costs.…”

“…This species, together with D. polymorpha or Neovison vison, which are amongst the ten costliest species in Spain, are also amongst the invasive aquatic species causing the most widespread economic impacts (Cuthbert et al 2021a). E. crassipes also seems to be one of the costliest species in several African countries, in Asia and in North American countries, such as Mexico (Diagne et al 2021b;Liu et al 2021;Rico-Sánchez 2021); while D. polymorpha seems to be very costly in the USA and N. vison in other European countries such as Germany (Crystal-Ornelas et al 2021;Haubrock et al 2021b). Being in the list of the 100 of the worst invasive species, D. polymorpha was also ranked as the 8 th costliest species of that list (Cuthbert et al 2021b).…”

Global economic costs of herpetofauna invasions

“…Island ecosystems are regarded as more vulnerable to invasion by alien species and their impacts 62 . They can incur economic costs through a different suite of sectors and species than mainland areas 64 . Islands are substantially more biodiverse than mainlands 65 .…”

Bioremediation of Automotive Residual Oil-Contaminated Soils by Biostimulation with Enzymes, Surfactant, and Vermicompost

“…Ricinus communis L. fruits were collected on public land where it grows wild in the city of Jerez (Zacatecas, Mexico), located at the latitude of 22°28′30″ N and longitude of 102°59′08″ W. This plant is considered an invasive exotic species in Mexico and other countries [ 21 , 22 , 23 ]. Therefore, a permit or regulation was not required for its collection.…”