12.D.6 Measuring the social, environmental and
economic impacts of vertebrate pests
This project aims to estimate the
current costs of invasive animals to Australia’s economy,
environment and society. It will identify a range of economic,
environmental and social impacts attributable to invasive animals
throughout Australia using a variety of contemporary and innovative
techniques; to address direct, indirect and induced impacts. The
analyses will be more up-to-date and comprehensive than the brief
Counting the Cost
(see ‘Documents’) report originally commissioned by the
IA CRC’s predecessor (Pest Animal Control CRC) in 2004. The
results will allow policy-makers and land managers to more fully
consider costs of pest animals, particularly environmental and
social costs, which are often excluded or underestimated. It
will also provide leverage for further resource allocation.
The project is a direct follow-on
from the socio-economic workshop held in November 2005 (see
Project
12.D.2 and Costing the
Impacts of Invasive Animals report in
‘Documents’ for more details). It was jointly funded by
the IA CRC and the National Feral Animal Control Program of the
Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust. Team members
are from Victorian Department of Primary Industries (DPI), NSW DPI,
University of New England and Fitzgerald Applied Sociology, New
Zealand.
The project is nearing completion,
with final reports due to be published soon. Outcomes include:
- Review of
‘Counting the cost’ report (from the Pest
Animal Control CRC) and identification of gaps from social,
economic and environmental perspectives.
- Review of
existing economic and social frameworks and methods for valuation
of impacts.
- Design of
alternative methods based on principles of welfare economics and
appropriate social methodology.
- Estimates of
measures of production impacts.
- Estimates of
measures of environmental impacts.
- Estimates of
measures of social impacts.
Costs of production losses, expenditure on control and
expenditure on research were included, although data was difficult
to obtain in many cases. The total losses in agriculture were
estimated from the impact on producers and consumers of
agricultural commodities, and based upon the abundance and
distribution of pest animals. Production impacts were broken down
by industry and by key pest animal. Horticulture and beef
industries were the most impacted industries. Rabbits and birds
(combined species) were the pests that incurred the greatest losses
to production. The agricultural loss versus expenditure on pests
suggests that too little money is being spent on pest animal
research and control.
The cost of
invasive animals on the environment was restricted to estimating
the loss of one environmental asset class — listed threatened
species — in New South Wales. Although producing a
conservative estimate, the methodology represents a breakthrough
approach and the value may provide a useful tool for further
analyses and funding leverage.
A framework
for measuring social costs was developed and a geographically-based
case study was undertaken in the Upper Hunter Valley of New South
Wales. Most of the social impacts of pest animals in the Upper
Hunter seem to flow out of the economic changes and impacts (such
as when farm household incomes are reduced or compromised) or the
environmental impacts (such as when carp invade a fishery).
Nevertheless, some informants recognise that direct social impacts
do occur, for example, the psychological distress to farmers caused
by wild dog attacks on their stock, or the distress and injuries to
motorists when they collide with feral animals. Intra-community
conflicts can result from attempting to implement pest control
programs in the context of changing land-use patterns and the
migration into rural communities of people with different sets of
values. The range and extent of the various social and economic
impacts can be expected to vary considerably across the nation, so
the case study results could not be directly used for extrapolation
to a national level. However, the data obtained did highlight key
social impacts experienced by different community members.
