2454 final report.pdf - Agra CEAS Consulting

Evaluation of the Community Plant Health Regime: Final Report
DG SANCO Evaluation Framework Contract Lot 3 (Food Chain)
These trends are predicted to continue, along with the further spread of already established
species. This is not only due to globalisation, but also to the negative effects of environmental
degradation caused by pollution, habitat loss and land use change, which create favourable
conditions for some introduced species to establish and spread. Climate change in particular is
predicted to have the ability to modify the whole process of an invasion (sources, pathways and
destinations) and increase ecosystem vulnerability to IAS.
3.1.2.4 IAS economic impact
The potential economic impact of IAS is a significant concern that increasingly adds to the
debate on developing effective strategies for IAS prevention and management. Based on
documented figures of available studies, a review carried out in the context of the current EU
strategy on IS 72 estimates the costs of IAS damage and control measures to be at least €12.5
billion /year (within this overall figure, available sector-specific evidence shows that IAS cost
almost €6 billion /year to key sectors including agriculture, fisheries and forestry). The majority
of the total costs, i.e. €9.6 billion /year, result from the damage caused by IAS whereas the rest,
i.e. €2.8 billion /year, are related to the control of IAS 73 . These figures are considered to be a
gross under-estimate of the current real impacts of IAS in Europe, as the impacts of only about
10% of IAS in Europe are known to ecologists and economists 74 . A partial and conservative
extrapolation undertaken on 25 out of the 61 IAS covered by the study estimates costs at over
€20 billion /year. Moving forward, due to the expansion of trade, without appropriate safeguards
against IAS, the threats from IAS are forecast to increase at an accelerated pace. It is also noted
that costs and benefits related to actions taken to reduce IAS risks are unevenly distributed: the
costs of intervention (control and clean up costs) are usually met from the public budget, whereas
the benefits of avoided damage are usually private.
The estimated costs of IAS in Europe appear to be of a comparable scale to those identified in
other parts of the world, although caution should be used when comparing these figures directly
due to the different methodologies used in the analysis. The best-known study on IAS impacts is
the assessment of known environmental and economic costs of IAS in the US, UK, Australia,
South Africa, India and Brazil carried out in 2001 and updated in 2005 (Pimentel et al. 2005).
This study estimated that invasions of non-native species in the six countries concerned cost over
US$ 314 billion in damage per year. Assuming similar costs worldwide, Pimentel estimated that
damage from invasive species could reach over US$ 1.4 trillion per year, representing nearly 5%
of world GDP.
72
Kettunen et al. 2009, as quoted in COM (2008) 789 final. Based on costs as documented in existing studies (i.e.
real & estimated costs). This study has carried out an assessment of the known costs of IAS in Europe based on
available studies on the monetary costs of IAS (available for 61 individual species and 14 specific IAS species
groups, out of the 100 worst IAS identified by DAISE). Costs related to terrestrial IAS (e.g. vertebrates, plants and
invertebrates) form a major part of this estimate. They include, for example, damage caused by pests to agriculture
and forestry. The extrapolation has been carried out on the basis of information on the area affected by IAS and the
known range of IAS in Europe (according to data from the DAISIE project). Given these information requirements
the extrapolation of costs was possible for 25 IAS considered in this study.
73 It is noted, however, that cost data on IAS control measures are more widely available across different IAS taxa
and ecosystems than data on the costs of damage.
74 Vilà, M. et al (2009).
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