The challenges of long‐term invasive mammal management: lessons from the UK

Mill, Aileen C.; Crowley, Sarah L.; Lambin, Xavier; McKinney, Conor; Maggs, Gwen; Robertson, Pete; Robinson, Nikki; Ward, Alastair I.; Marzano, Mariella

doi:10.1111/mam.12186

Cited by 20 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(31 reference statements)

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“…A major challenge CONTAIN faces is that adaptive management requires a long period of time to show results, while both the required research and implementation funding to achieve that goal are short-term, typically three years (Mill et al 2020). There are grounds for optimism, however.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CONTAIN: Optimising the long-term management of invasive alien species using adaptive management

Lambin¹,

Burslem²,

Caplat³

et al. 2020

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Invasive Alien Species (IAS) threaten biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services, modify landscapes and impose costs to national economies. Management efforts are underway globally to reduce these impacts, but little attention has been paid to optimising the use of the scarce available resources when IAS are impossible to eradicate, and therefore population reduction and containment of their advance are the only feasible solutions. CONTAIN, a three-year multinational project involving partners from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the UK, started in 2019. It develops and tests, via case study examples, a decision-making toolbox for managing different problematic IAS over large spatial extents. Given that vast areas are invaded, spatial prioritisation of management is necessary, often based on sparse data. In turn, these characteristics imply the need to make the best decisions possible under likely heavy uncertainty. Our decision-support toolbox will integrate the following components: (i) the relevant environmental, social, cultural, and economic impacts, including their spatial distribution; (ii) the spatio-temporal dynamics of the target IAS (focusing on dispersal and population recovery); (iii) the relationship between the abundance of the IAS and its impacts; (iv) economic methods to estimate both benefits and costs to inform the spatial prioritisation of cost-effective interventions. To ensure that our approach is relevant for different contexts in Latin America, we are working with model species having contrasting modes of dispersal, which have large environmental and/or economic impacts, and for which data already exist (invasive pines, privet, wasps, and American mink). We will also model plausible scenarios for data-poor pine and grass species, which impact local people in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. We seek the most effective strategic management actions supported by empirical data on the species’ population dynamics and dispersal that underpin reinvasion, and on intervention costs in a spatial context. Our toolbox serves to identify key uncertainties driving the systems, and especially to highlight gaps where new data would most effectively reduce uncertainty on the best course of action. The problems we are tackling are complex, and we are embedding them in a process of co-operative adaptive management, so that both researchers and managers continually improve their effectiveness by confronting different models to data. Our project is also building research capacity in Latin America by sharing knowledge/information between countries and disciplines (i.e., biological, social and economic), by training early-career researchers through research visits, through our continuous collaboration with other researchers and by training and engaging stakeholders via workshops. Finally, all these activities will establish an international network of researchers, managers and decision-makers. We expect that our lessons learned will be of use in other regions of the world where complex and inherently context-specific realities shape how societies deal with IAS.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CONTAIN: Optimising the long-term management of invasive alien species using adaptive management

Lambin¹,

Burslem²,

Caplat³

et al. 2020

Self Cite

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“…Eradication is a fundamental tool for protecting biodiversity from the negative effects of IAS (Howald et al , Robertson et al , Capizzi ). If removal actions do not obtain the expected result, the only option may be to move on to continuous control (Mill et al ). Therefore, careful planning is necessary to evaluate feasibility and effort needed for eradication, and field work should be adaptive (Martin & Lea , Richardson et al ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatially explicit models as tools for implementing effective management strategies for invasive alien mammals

et al. 2020

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Invasive alien species are major drivers of global change that can have severe impacts on biodiversity and human well‐being. Management strategies implemented to mitigate these impacts are based on a hierarchical approach, from prevention of invasion, via early warning and rapid response, to invasive species management. We evaluated how different classes of spatially explicit models have been used as predictive tools to improve the effectiveness of management strategies. A review of literature published between 2000 and 2019 was undertaken to retrieve studies addressing alien mammal species through these models. We collected 62 studies, dealing with 70 (27%) of the 261 mammal species that are considered to be introduced worldwide. Most of the studies dealt with species from the orders Rodentia (34%), Artiodactyla and Carnivora (both 24%); the most commonly studied families were Sciuridae (13%) and Muridae (12%). Most of the studies (73%) provided spatial predictions of potential species spread, while only ca. 15% of the studies included evaluations of management options. About 29% of the studies were considered useful in risk assessment procedures, but only because they presented climatic suitability predictions worldwide, while studies modelling suitability before a species was introduced locally are still lacking for mammals. With some exceptions, spatially explicit population models are still little used, probably because of the perceived need for detailed information on life history parameters. Spatially explicit models have been used in relatively few studies dealing with invasive mammals, and most of them covered a restricted pool of species. Most of the studies used climate matching to evaluate the suitability of geographic areas worldwide or the possibility of species that were already established spreading further. Modelling procedures could be a useful tool to assess the risk of establishment for species not yet present in an area but likely to arrive; however, such studies are lacking for mammals.

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“…The species responsible for the maximum potential impact under this mechanism were the house mouse and the European rabbit. These species scored high because their impacts were mostly associated with major economic losses on agriculture, and also their eradication plans required the application of pesticides which are expensive and have negative impacts (Twigg et al 2002;Williams et al 2010;Haniza et al 2015;Capizzi 2020;Mill et al 2020). In developing countries, invasive rats and mice compete with humans for food (Stenseth et al 2003), targeting various crops such as cereals, rice, palm oil, fruits, cocoa, and sugarcane, which results in a significant economic loss and affects food security (Tobin and Fall 2004;Varnham 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the potential impacts of non-native small mammals in the South African pet trade

Shivambu¹,

Shivambu²,

Downs³

2020

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The pet trade is one of the most important pathways by which small mammals are introduced to non-native areas. To prevent the introduction and invasion of non-native pets, an impact assessment protocol is useful in understanding which pets might have potential negative impacts should they escape or be released from captivity. In this study, we used the Generic Impact Scoring System (GISS) to assess the potential effects associated with 24 non-native small mammal species sold in the South African pet trade. European rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus, house mice Mus musculus, Norwegian rats Rattus norvegicus and eastern grey squirrels Sciurus carolinensis had the highest potential impacts for both socio-economic and environmental categories. We found no statistically significant difference between the overall environmental and socio-economic impact scores. Impacts on agricultural and animal production (livestock) were the main mechanisms in the socio-economic category, while the impacts on animals (predation), competition and hybridisation prevailed for environmental impacts. The non-native mammal pet species with high impacts should be strictly regulated to prevent the potential impacts and establishment of feral populations in South Africa.

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The challenges of long‐term invasive mammal management: lessons from the UK

Cited by 20 publications

References 32 publications

CONTAIN: Optimising the long-term management of invasive alien species using adaptive management

CONTAIN: Optimising the long-term management of invasive alien species using adaptive management

Spatially explicit models as tools for implementing effective management strategies for invasive alien mammals

Assessing the potential impacts of non-native small mammals in the South African pet trade

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