Invasive Species: Global vs Provincial Efforts

Now that we have given a brief overview of Newfoundland’s role in management strategies, now we’ll take a look at how we’re doing compared to some global initiatives. Invasive species are not just a problem here; they are an ever-growing issue in most of the world.

There are many global organizations that take it upon themselves to help solve some of the invasive species issues around the world, such as the Global Invasive Species Information Network which creates a database of invasive species present everywhere in the world.

Another global management program is being run by the Global Invasive Species Team of the Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health. This is mainly an information hub to direct you to various planning and strategies that countries have done or are doing. It also provides the public with outreach programs that can get people involved with actually aiding in the management of these species.

 WWF is another world program which deals with the issue of invasive species however; their cause is not solely directed at this. They make little mention of invasive species as a major problem, but they do include an interesting graph of the escalating problem of invasive fish in the Lake Victoria (see below). However, the WWF is a huge powerhouse in the environmental sector with regard to public attention, and they should use it to educate the larger public about a variety of important topics: especially invasive species!

Figure 1: Introduction of Nile perch into Lake Victoria has contributed to the extinction of 200 local fishes (WWF, 2011).

IUCN has the most comprehensive study on invasive species at a global scale. They have an entire report available on their webpage, which includes lots of relevant data and some potential strategies to implement in response to the growing problem of invasive species.

While these organizations are undoubtedly positive, are they effective? Many of them are unknown to the general public and are only frequented by professionals in the area or a small demographic of the wider population. In many cases these organizations provide insufficient or non-complete data that are not providing the whole story. For instance, they often mention certain species are considered invasive in Canada, but Canada is a very large place with very different environments and wildlife distributions – without more specific (smaller scale) data, there is little that can be done with this. Additionally, Global Invasive Species Information Network claims that in Canada, there are only a few species in the kingdom Animalia that are invasive, this is blatantly wrong, there are more than that in Newfoundland alone! Lastly, most of these organizations are “more talk, less action”, that is they suggest what we should do and provide (questionable data) but actually do very little to help mitigate these problems.

Before we get too angry at some of these international organizations, how is Newfoundland and Labrador doing?

Our province mirrors these problems in many ways. Much of Newfoundland does not even know about the status of invasive species here or simply have “bigger problems”. In a survey done in Newfoundland, the public here is most concerned about healthcare and employment problems, while environmental problems were not even near the top of the considerations. And the programs that we do have in place, both government and other organizations, are relatively unknown for people outside of their community. The government needs to put more action into dealing with these invasive species, in the form of research, strategies, education, funding and implementation if we ever plan to make any progress on this problem in our province (much like the issue at a global scale).

Links:

Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health:

http://www.invasive.org/gist/

DFO Newfoundland:

http://www.nfl.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/ais-eae

IUCN Global Strategy on Invasive Alien Species:

http://data.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/2001-011.pdf

Global Invasive Species Initiative: http://www.gisin.org/DH.php?WC=/WS/GISIN/home.html&WebSiteID=4

Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Environment and Conservation:

http://www.env.gov.nl.ca/env/wildlife/biodiversity/invasive_alien_species/

WWF:

http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/teacher_resources/own_goals/invasive_species/