The myth of the sorcerer’s apprentice is deeply embedded in our culture, but we repeatedly fail to learn the dangers of unleashing powerful forces that then escape our control. This is evident in the alarming report, published this week by the UN Environment Programme, on the rapidly increasing negative impacts of invasive alien species on economies, and on healthy ecosystems.
Humans have moved other species around for millennia, initially crops and livestock. But globalisation has exponentially escalated the problems. In an intact ecosystem, each species which has evolved there, from pathogens to elephants, controls the numbers of some other species, while some other species in turn controls them.
But if you move a European crab to coastal Canada, where it has no predators, its population will explode and it will wipe out native Canadian shellfish. Move an American crab to Mediterranean lagoons, and the same thing happens in reverse. The damage, to local economies and to environmental health, is massive. The UN report quantifies the global cost at ¤392 billion per annum.
The report shows that, while most countries acknowledge the alien invasive species problems, few are implementing effective policies. An exception is New Zealand, which imposes rigorous border controls on biological imports, and operates programmes for eradicating established invasive species. It is an encouraging demonstration that the problem can be addressed, given political will and community buy-in.
In Ireland, both are still disturbingly lacking. Rhododendron ponticum, for example, is destroying our few remaining native oak forests. But experts are critical of the National Parks and Wildlife Service’s failure to eradicate this shrub, even on public land like Killarney National Park. No prosecutions have been brought against private landowners for failing to remove invasive species, and many continue to be sold here commercially.
The State needs to take radical action on invasive species if we are to restore our ecosystems to flourishing health.