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Different arguments, same conclusions: how is action against invasive alien species justified in the context of European policy?

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Abstract

The prevention and management of invasive alien species (IAS) has become a high priority in European environmental policy. At the same time, ways of evaluating IAS continue to be a topic of lively debate. In particular, it is far from clear how directly policy makers’ value judgements are linked to the European (EU) policy against IAS. We examine the arguments used to support value judgements of both alien species and invasive alien species as well as the relation between these value judgements and the policy against IAS being developed at European level. Our study is based on 17 semi-structured interviews with experts from EU policy making and from the EU member states Austria, Belgium, Germany and Hungary. We found that our interviewees conceived of IAS in very different ways, expressed a variety of visions of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and adhered to widely different values expressed in their perceptions of IAS and the impacts of IAS. However, only some of these conceptualizations and value judgements are actually addressed in the rationale given in the preamble to the European IAS Regulation. Although value judgements about IAS differed, there was considerable agreement regarding the kind of action to be taken against them.

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Acknowledgments

The research leading to these results was supported by funding from the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme of the project ‘BESAFE’ (Grant agreement no. 282743). We thank two anonymous reviewers for their very constructive and helpful comments. Kathleen Cross did a great job in turning our babble into proper English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Conservation Biology, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstr. 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

    Ulrich Heink & Kurt Jax

  2. Nature & Society research group, Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Kliniekstraat 25, 1070, Brussels, Belgium

    Ann Van Herzele

  3. Environmental Social Science Research Group (ESSRG), Budapest, Rómer Flóris street 38, Hungary

    Györgyi Bela

  4. MTA Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Vácrátót, Alkotmány u. 2-4, 2163, Hungary

    Ágnes Kalóczkai

  5. Chair of Restoration Ecology, Technische Universität München, Emil-Ramann-Str. 6, 85354, Freising, Germany

    Kurt Jax

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  1. Ulrich Heink
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  2. Ann Van Herzele
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  3. Györgyi Bela
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  4. Ágnes Kalóczkai
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  5. Kurt Jax
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Correspondence to Ulrich Heink.

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Communicated by Rob Bugter, Paula Harrison, John Haslett and Rob Tinch.

This is part of the special issue on ‘BESAFE’.

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Heink, U., Van Herzele, A., Bela, G. et al. Different arguments, same conclusions: how is action against invasive alien species justified in the context of European policy?. Biodivers Conserv 27, 1659–1677 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-016-1170-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-016-1170-2

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