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 final social impacts report
'Assessing the social impact of invasive animals in Australia' is
now available (see Documents section of this page) and the
economics impacts report is 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.
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.
Costs of production losses, expenditure on control and
expenditure on research were calculated, 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.
