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Invasive non-native species can have detrimental effects on the native species they supplant, as well as on human health and business. Their presence has accelerated with the expansion of international trade and travel. In this inquiry we examined the measures covered in a proposed EU regulation on the management on invasive species, as well as proposals from the Law Commission to change the law on invasive species.
The tools available for tackling invasive species include prevention, surveillance and monitoring, eradication and long-term control. On prevention, identifying potentially invasive species prior to their arrival is critical. In order for such species to be incorporated into the national list of invasive species, there needs to be close links between horizon-scanning and risk assessment processes. Given the lack of prosecutions under existing laws, it seems doubtful that the existing listing system will on its own provide the controls now needed. The Government should take the opportunity of the Law Commission Review of Wildlife Legislation and the proposed EU regulation to revamp the listing process.
The risks posed to biosecurity in Britain make it imperative that an integrated approach is taken to managing the risks of invasive species alongside those of plant and animal health.Defra needs to develop an approach to monitoringand surveillance that is more closely integrated with voluntary groups. The Government should immediately move to ratify the Ballast Water Convention.
For eradication campaigns to be successful and cost-effective, they need to be timely, informed by good evidence and with sufficient funds to sustain them until complete eradication is achieved. Rapid response plans should be developed by the Non-native Species Secretariat, with other agencies, for all the species on the national and EU 'lists of concern' that are not yet established in Great Britain. The Government should commission research on the lessons from previous eradication campaigns.
And for those species on the lists that are already established in Britain, the Government should have invasive species action plans in place to ensure long-term control funds are being effectively spent. Those invasive species for which clear biodiversity or habitat restoration outcomes cannot be established should be removed from the national list, and any control measures critically re-evaluated.
To meet the objectives of the proposed EU Regulation, a significant step up in public awareness and public acceptance of control measures will be needed.
There is a clear need for the Scottish system of species control agreements and species control orders to be replicated in England and Wales, to ensure effective rapid response plans to eradicate invasive species before they can become established. They could also help avoid wasted effort and expenditure on large-scale control or eradication programmes, which might otherwise fail if access to all affected land could not be secured. The Government should implement the Law Commission's recommendations to tighten the invasive species legislation for England and Wales, which should be a priority for the Government's legislative agenda.
The measures discussed above will however need to be adapted to a still evolving context. Environmental changes caused by humans, including through climate change, are affecting the global distribution of species. We will have to increasingly focus on conservation, where changes in species distributions have to be managed rather than simply resisted. While we welcome the proposed EU regulation, as the Government also does, such factors will determine over the years ahead the need for, and realism of, the measures it proposes. The Government should use the opportunity of its ongoing revision of the Non-native Species Strategy to begin a public debate on the implications of this evolving challenge.
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