Pimentel et al., 2005 Stohlgren & Schnase, 2006 Kettunen et al., 2009 Ricciardi et al., 2011), making species invasions an environmental issue of great global significance.Īs a global response to the ongoing threat of IAS, the international community has set the Aichi Biodiversity Target 9 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 2010) to ensure that measures to prevent the introduction and establishment of IAS should be in place for all signatories by 2020. Their global impacts are substantial and costly (e.g. IAS are defined in international governance as species introduced via human action outside of their natural geographical range, with a demonstrable environmental or socio-economic impact and capable of sustaining a self-replacing population (IUCN, 2000 Lockwood et al., 2007 Richardson, 2008). This paper explores global patterns of invasions, introduction pathways and associated legislative responses for invasive alien species (IAS) based on the most comprehensive databases currently available. Current patterns suggest that Africa and Central Asia are priority areas for future IAS research and control. Policy responses towards IAS show an increasing desire from the international community to act on species invasions. Dominant pathways for species invasions are similar across different regions. Main conclusionsĬlear global patterns in the distributions of IAS are determined, supporting arguments emphasizing the role of colonial history, economic development and trade in driving the human-mediated movement of species. Large increases in legislation on IAS have occurred since the 1990s, particularly for those countries that have high numbers of species invasions. The dominant pathway for species invasions was horticulture and the nursery trade, with 31% of the species introduced outside of their natural geographical range.
Of the 1517 recorded IAS, 39% were introduced only intentionally and 26% only unintentionally, 22% both intentionally and unintentionally, while 13% had no information available.
Substantial variation in the spatial patterns of invasion was determined, with the Global North, some newly industrialized countries and small tropical islands being the main recipients of IAS and asymmetry (Κ) being highest in New World countries and small islands. A novel indicator of the asymmetry between each country's ‘ingress/egress’ of IAS (kappa, Κ), was developed to further explore spatial patterns. Patterns of recorded species invasions and pathways of introduction were mapped and visualized using data from the Global Invasive Species Database (GISD) and the CABI Invasive Species Compendium (CABI ISC), along with associated legal instruments relevant to IAS compiled from the ECOLEX database. To use global databases to (1) provide a visualization of global geographical patterns of species invasions, origins and pathways and (2) depict the international uptake of legislative and policy responses to invasive alien species (IAS).
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