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FOREWORD
Special Issue on Invasive Species
Lori Lynch and Erik Lichtenberg
Invasive species are non-native organisms that
can cause economic, environmental, or human
harm. Invasive species can alter the ecosystem
balance, threatening the survival of indigenous
species and impairing the ability of natural and
managed ecosystems to provide services of sig-
nificant economic value. Damage from just six
exotic invasive species has been estimated at $74
billion. Mitigation often requires increased use of
pesticides, which may adversely affect beneficial
organisms, water quality, and human health. The
cost of mitigation measures can also be high and
often is paid with tax dollars. For example,
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service increased its annual spending on emer-
gency eradication programs more than twenty-
fold during the 1990s—to $232 million from
$10.4 million. Due to these impacts, trade instru-
ments and other border measures are often used
to avoid the introduction of such species.
This special issue of the Agricultural and Re-
source Economics Review contains papers from a
workshop focused on invasive species issues that
was held in Annapolis, Maryland, on June 14-15,
2005, following the annual meetings of the
Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Econom-
ics Association. The U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency, USDA’s Economic Research Ser-
vice, and the Farm Foundation co-sponsored the
workshop. Current theoretical models and re-
search findings were presented with an emphasis
on understanding the relationship between trade,
exotic species invasions, and natural and man-
aged ecosystem functioning; developing method-
ologies that connect biology, ecology, and eco-
nomics so that the complexity of agricultural or
natural systems is recognized in the evaluation of
Lori Lynch is Associate Professor and Erik Lichtenberg Professor, re-
spectively, in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
at the University of Maryland, College Park.
existing and potential preventive, mitigation, and
eradication policies; assessing the potential bene-
fits and costs of alternative institutional arrange-
ments for establishing and implementing invasive
species policies at the national and international
levels; and identifying key research needs and
future research collaborations. In addition to the
workshop papers, this special issue includes two
literature reviews covering terrestrial and aquatic
invasive species.
Ecologist Daniel Simberloff explains how dif-
ficult prevention is as biological organisms move
autonomously, reproduce, evolve, and interact
with other organisms. Estimating the impacts is
difficult due to the lack of data about these fac-
tors. He argues that the blacklist policy of the
United States is not working. He concludes that to
stem the flood of invasive species into and within
the United States would require blacklists, a
white-listing procedure, and tighter regulation of
pathways.
Jason Shogren provides an overview of his
work on the biological and economic problems of
managing invasive species. Issues include pre-
vention versus control, uncertainty and invest-
ment in control measures, dynamics, risk aver-
sion, economic growth, and the political eco-
nomics of trade policy. He and co-authors David
Finnoff, Chris McIntosh, and Chad Settle review
integration (combining biological and economic
models) and valuation (assigning value to non-
market phenomena). They argue that valuation
should be based on the integration models.
Several papers explore issues related to the pre-
vention and control of invasive species, drawing
implications for policy decisions and resource al-
locations. The paper by Kimberly Burnett investi-
gates the level and funding of invasive species
prevention and control as a “weaker link” public
good given incomplete information. She finds
that there will be underinvestment in prevention
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 35/1 (April 2006) iii-v
Copyright 2005 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association