Project
© Gonzalo Pardo
© Gonzalo Pardo
Invasive alien species (IAS) are currently recognized as one of the most important agents of biodiversity change globally. Invasive alien species are directly or indirectly involved in 60% of recorded species extinctions).
But what are IAS? They are species whose presence in a site or region is a consequence of human intervention, either as a result of direct or indirect actions. They are species that, after their arrival, managed to establish themselves and develop autonomous populations, with the capacity to disperse to new sites and generate impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and human life.
The mechanisms through which they impact on the natural environment are as follows:
Invasive Alien Species
They can impact human health, the economy and human access to the benefits of nature (e.g. drinking water, food).
The economic cost of IAS is calculated on the basis of the damage they generate but also in relation to the economic investment needed to address and reverse their impacts. It is estimated that globally, the annual cost of IAS exceeds $420 billion dollars (IPBES 2023).
Action is needed to reverse the impacts of exotic species and halt the extinction of native populations or species, restore the functioning of natural environments and protect various aspects of human life.
In the long term, reducing the impact of IAS is necessary to support healthy and resilient ecosystems that are able to cope with increasingly demanding environmental conditions, such as those expected in the current context of climate change. In this way, we will help natural systems to continue to sustain human life that depend on the affected environments.
in focus
Neogale vison
Scope of the project
Oncorhynchus mykiss
Scope of the project
Larus dominicanus
Scope of the project
Invasive Alien Species
The restoration plans, including control and eradication of exotic (non-invasive), invasive alien and neonnative species (i.e. species that did not naturally occur in certain areas and that for anthropogenic reasons expanded their distribution), are rooted in the protection of the populations of the critically endangered Hooded Grebe. The focal species identified from the beginning of the program were the Rainbow Trout, American Mink, and the Black-bellied Gull. Each of these species has completely different characteristics both in their distribution, expansion processes and, mainly, in their biology, since they are a fish species, a carnivorous mammal and a bird with very plastic adaptive characteristics. These control and eradication plans for these species are consequently completely different in all their characteristics, except in the strategy that they are adaptive, i.e., they all have constant evaluation methods that allow them to be modified and improved to maximize the desired effect and minimize potential negative impacts on non-focal species (i.e., avoid collateral damage as much as possible). During the development of these management plans for these species, the effect on the entire community is also monitored and not on the focal species they seek to protect, as, for example, has been the recovery of coypu populations in the Buenos Aires Lake Plateau thanks to the control of American mink to protect the Hooded Grebe. These management plans, mainly the American mink management plan, have been one of the first efficient and economically viable strategies to curb the impact of an invasive animal species in Argentina, and have begun to be replicated in different regions of Patagonia, mainly, but not exclusively, within National Parks.
patagonia in action program
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