Invasive species cost China $14B per year

Invasive species cost China $14B per year
mongabay.com
April 1, 2008

Rapid economic growth and giant infrastructure projects have allowed invasive species to spread throughout China and inflict more than $14.5 billion of damage to the nation's economy annually, according to a study published in Bioscience. The research warns that the Beijing Olympics may worsen the toll.

Comparing trade and economic with the spread of non-native species, Richard Mack and colleagues show that "China's economic boom has been paralleled by a boom in biological invasions," according to a statement from Washington State University. Over the past three decades the number of invasive species in the country has more than tripled while the number of international ports of entry to China has doubled and the total length of express highways has expanded by a factor of 40.

The authors say China's waterways have served as a conduit for the spread of alien species, but government efforts to ready Beijing for the Olympics are also facilitating the influx of biological invaders.

Yunnan province, China. The authors say southern China is at particular risk from invasive species.

"Between 2002 and 2004 the Chinese government imported more than 31 million woody seedlings and 130,000 pounds of seeds to be planted in and around Beijing to 'beautify' the city in advance of the Games," said the statement from Washington State University. "Some of those plants may themselves become invasive; and even well-behaved imported plants may carry invasive insects or parasites."

The authors say that visitors will inadvertently bring foreign species to China.

"The most likely way that any of these organisms are going to come in is in a resting stage—eggs, seeds, spores," said Mack, a Washington State University ecologist. "That means they're not going to be prominent at all when they first come in. So the Chinese will need to be alert with follow-up inspections.+

The authors recommend a monitoring program for the year following the games to reduce the likelihood than invasive species can establish a foothold in the country.

"China's Booming Economy is Sparking and Accelerating Biological Invasions." BioScience vol. 58, pages 317-324.

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