Pets, Aquarium, and Terrarium Species - Convention on Biological ...

<strong>Pets</strong>, <strong>Aquarium</strong>, <strong>and</strong> <strong>Terrarium</strong> <strong>Species</strong>: Best Practices for Addressing Risks to Biodiversity
4. POLICY OPTIONS AND BEST PRACTICES: RISK ASSESSMENT
Once established, invasive alien species can cause significant damage to ecosystems, native biodiversity, <strong>and</strong> local
economies. Eradicating entrenched invasive species is often a complex <strong>and</strong> expensive task. A front-line strategy to
address this problem is preventing invasive species from gaining footholds in new ecosystems in the first place. In
an attempt to achieve this aim, some countries have implemented processes to assess the risk of imports becoming
invasive in the importing country, <strong>and</strong> have restricted imports that constitute a significant risk.
Risk assessment of live imports can increase the net economic value of international trade in live animals. In the
case of Australia’s ornamental plant trade, modeling has showed that screening tools are sufficiently accurate to
produce economic benefits, <strong>and</strong> screening generated enough savings to pay for itself in a relatively short time.
Savings originate in several ways, including reduced industrial losses to damage caused to agricultural species by
invasives, prevention of disease in both agriculture <strong>and</strong> in the human population, <strong>and</strong> the avoidance of expensive
<strong>and</strong> complex eradication strategies for established invasive populations. This evidence contradicts concerns that
risk assessment accuracy may be insufficient to produce positive net economic benefits because only a small proportion
of all introduced species escape, spread, become invasive <strong>and</strong> cause harm (Keller et al. 2008).
A major expert workshop aimed at elaborating best practices in pre-import risk screening for species of live animals
carried in international trade was held in April 2008 at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, United
States of America (http://www.gisp.org/publications/policy/workshop-riskscreening-pettrade.pdf). The complex
intertwining of science, economics, culture, social norms, practical implementation, <strong>and</strong> international laws <strong>and</strong>
institutions were considered <strong>and</strong> discussed. A range of tools, processes/procedures <strong>and</strong> regulations that have been
developed <strong>and</strong> adopted by different countries were also discussed, including their applicability to pre-import risk
screening for species of live animals in international trade.
Workshop presentations illustrated that substantial recent progress has occurred on the development of concepts
<strong>and</strong> technical tools for risk assessment of live animal species proposed for importation. Presenters demonstrated
that it is now often possible to distinguish, with acceptable levels of accuracy, between alien species that will probably
be harmful to the importing country <strong>and</strong> alien species that will probably be benign. These concepts <strong>and</strong> tools
were built by combining recent progress in the discipline of invasion biology with st<strong>and</strong>ard practices in the more
established discipline of risk assessment.
Recent developments in assessing the risks posed by potential import species enable more accurate <strong>and</strong> costeffective
management of those risks. For example, for species assessed as “likely to be benign,” importation could
be allowed with few, if any, conditions. <strong>Species</strong> assessed as “likely to pose a high risk of harm” could be prohibited
or, if import is allowed, be subjected to stringent conditions (such as sterilization) to manage identified risks.
Such decisions based on risk-assessment procedures could be part of a country’s regulatory framework or part
of a self regulating process — for example an industry code of conduct (note that for simplicity, below, we refer
mostly to “countries”). By applying risk assessment <strong>and</strong> decision-making in this way, the net economic value of
international trade in live animals can likely be increased.
The workshop also addressed the gaps in the international regulatory framework, relating to the lack of international
st<strong>and</strong>ards to address invasive alien species originating in the pet industry <strong>and</strong> the associated live animal
trade. It was generally agreed that national implementation is not well developed for pre-import risk screening
for animal species, especially outside the agricultural context, although there are some notable exceptions. The
following information is largely based on the report arising from that discussion.
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