Overview
Invasive species include nonnative, alien, or exotic
plant pests (such as insects, weeds, or pathogens); animal
and zoonotic disease pathogens, which can transmit diseases
between animals and humans; or other organisms that can
cause economic or environmental harm to U.S. agriculture,
range, and forest systems if they enter the United States.
USDA and other Federal and State Government agencies have
programs to prevent entry and to detect, monitor, and
manage invasive species that enter the United States or
spread to new regions. ERS conducts and funds research
to support these efforts through the Program of Research
on the Economics of Invasive Species Management (PREISM).
Features
2008
PREISM Workshop—ERS and the Farm Foundation sponsored
a workshop on October 23-24, 2008 to discuss the progress
and findings of selected projects funded from 2004 through
2007. The workshop brought together researchers, program
administrators, policymakers, and other stakeholders concerned
with the management of invasive species. Dr.
Richard N. Mack, Professor of Ecology at Washington
State University, gave the keynote speech titled, "Calling
All Economists, ED/RR Needs Your Help." The featured luncheon
speaker was Daniel
B. Botkin, Emeritus Professor, University of California-Santa
Barbara, whose speech was titled, "The Naturalness
of Biological Invasions: Cultural Perceptions and
Ecological Realities of Biological Invasions."
PREISM
2008 Competitive Awards—ERS's Program of
Research on the Economics of Invasive Species Management
funded 6 research projects under its 2008 competitive
awards program. The awards are the latest in the PREISM
competitive research program, which funded 6 projects
in 2007, 7 projects per year in 2004, 2005, and 2006,
and 12 in 2003. For more information about the program,
see the PREISM
page.
PREISM
Activities Report—Under the Program of
Research on the Economics of Invasive Species Management
(PREISM), ERS supports and conducts research to improve
the economic basis of decisionmaking concerning invasive
issues, policies, and programs. The report details
the objectives and activities of PREISM and reports
important accomplishments for fiscal years 2003-2006.
Included are descriptions of the extramural research
program and all funded projects, and a list of project
outputs.
Recommended Readings
Integrating
Invasive Species Prevention and Control Policies—Programs and polices to prevent the entry of invasive
species can influence management responses and vice versa.
This report examines the issues of integrating prevention
and control programs to manage invasive species more
effectively, which depends on the biological characteristics
and size of the invasive species population, ecological
characteristics of potentially invaded ecosystems, the
cost and efficacy of prevention measures relative to
control measures, how individuals in the private sector
respond to invasive species and public prevention and
control programs, and the level of prevention costs borne
abroad. (September 2008)
Regulating Agricultural Imports To Keep Out Foreign Pests and Disease—Increasing
agricultural imports benefits U.S. consumers, but shipments
can transport harmful foreign pests and diseases. The
United States and other nations use a number of approaches
to reduce risks to agriculture and the environment from
pests and diseases entering through trade. Economic analysis
can help identify measures that mitigate risks of economic
or environmental damage with minimal impact on trade
benefits. (September 2008)
Prioritizing
Invasive Species Management by Optimizing Production
of Ecosystem Service Benefits—This report
examined how decisions to invest in invasive species
management on public lands could incorporate economic
concepts to better gauge the level of social benefits
generated and how optimization models could be applied
to produce the maximum potential gains in ecosystem
services. (July 2008)
Pesticide
Resistance, Population Dynamics, and Invasive Species
Management—This report describes a dynamic
bioeconomic simulation model that represents the biological,
economic, and regulatory features of a specific invasion
management problem: the late 1990s invasion of California
strawberries by the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes
vaporariorum, and the pesticide use restrictions imposed
by California regulators to manage pesticide resistance.
(July 2008)
Policy and Risk Processes
of Trade-Related Biological Invasions—This
report summarizes the methodologies, results and
empirical insights of research on nonindigenous species
(NIS) introduction risk. This research on trade-related
NIS introductions highlights the welfare and biological
implications of both broad policy instruments (such
as tariffs) and differentiated policy instruments
(such as inspections), and the challenge of empirically
supporting the latter. (June 2008)
Economic
Impacts of Foreign Animal Disease—Researchers
estimated economic impacts of outbreaks of foreign-source
livestock diseases using a quarterly livestock and crop
modeling framework in which epidemiological model results
are integrated with an economic model of the U.S. agricultural
sector. The framework can be applied to many livestock
diseases and this study uses the model to assess the
results of a hypothetical outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease (FMD). Model results show large trade-related
losses for beef, beef cattle, hogs, and pork, even though
relatively few animals are destroyed. The best control
strategies prove to be those that reduce the duration
of the outbreak. (May 2008)
Linking
Risk and Economic Assessments in the Analysis of Plant
Pest Regulations: The Case of U.S. Imports of Mexican
Avocados—In this report, researchers develop a
static partial equilibrium model to evaluate the effects
of allowing fresh Hass avocados from approved orchards
in Mexico to be imported into the United States under
systems approach pest-risk mitigation measures. This
analysis provides an example of the way in which risk
assessment and economic analysis can be integrated
to inform the choice and design of measures that reduce
phytosanitary risks while allowing trade that benefits
consumers. (October 2006)
The Value of Plant Disease
Early Warning Systems: A Case Study of USDA's Soybean
Rust Coordinated Framework—USDA's warning
system provides real-time, county-level forecasts of
soybean rust in the United States. The study estimates
that the information provided by Federal, State, industry,
and academic partners enabled U.S. soybean producers
to increase profits between $11 million and $299 million
in 2005, or between 16 cents and $4.12 per acre depending
on assumptions, particularly those concerning the accuracy
of rust infection forecasts. (April 2006)
Economic and Policy Implications of Wind-Borne Entry of
Asian Soybean Rust into the United States—American
soybean producers and the research, regulatory, and extension
institutions supporting them are responding to the entry
of Asian soybean rust into the United States. This report
examines how the economic impacts of soybean rust establishment
will depend on the timing, location, spread, and severity
of rust infestation and on how soybean and other crop
producers, livestock producers, and consumers of agricultural
commodities respond to this new pathogen. (April 2004)
A Framework for Analyzing
Technical Trade Barriers in Agricultural Markets—Technical
trade barriers are increasingly important in international
agricultural trade. Designing technical trade measures
that can satisfy the growing demand for food safety, product
differentiation, environmental amenities, and product
information at the lowest cost to the consumer and to
the international trading system requires an understanding
of the complex economics of regulatory import barriers.
This report proposes a definition and classification scheme
to frame discussion and evaluation of such measures. (March
1999)
Related Briefing Rooms
Recommended Data Product
Phytosanitary Regulation
of the Entry of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables into the
United States—This data product
provides information on the countries eligible,
according to USDA's Animal
and Plant Health and Inspection Service,
to export certain
fresh fruits and vegetables to the United States. Data
on the absolute and relative importance of these countries
in international production and trade, individually and
in aggregate, are also included. This data product supports
the objectives of the Program for Research on the Economics
of Invasive Species (PREISM).
Related Links
Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service (APHIS), USDA. APHIS
services include Plant
Protection and Quarantine, Veterinary
Services, Wildlife
Services, and the International
Services.
Agricultural
Research Service, USDA, including its Research programs
in Crop
Protection and Quarantine and Animal
Health.
National Invasive Species Information Center, coordinated
by the National Agricultural Library, USDA.
U.S. Customs and Border
Protection, Department of Homeland Security.
Office
International des Epizooties (OIE), World
Organization for Animal Health.
Components of the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, especially the Animal
Production and Health Division, and the International
Plant Protection Convention.
North American
Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO).
World
Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Sanitary and
Phytosanitary Measures.
Global Invasive
Species Programme (GISP).
U.S.
Trade and Investment Agreements, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
Maps and Image Gallery
USDA Public Soybean
Rust Website—Maps of Asian soybean rust
movement.
Image
Galleries—National Invasive Species Information
Center.
Not
All Alien Invaders Are From Outer Space—Poster
from APHIS, USDA.
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