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Proportion of countries adopting relevant national legislation and adequately resourcing the prevention or control of invasive alien species

This indicator aims to quantify trends in:

Part A: Commitment by countries to relevant multinational agreements, specifically:

1. National adoption of invasive alien species-relevant international policy.
2. Percentage of countries with (a) national strategies for preventing and controlling invasive alien species; and (b) national legislation and policy-relevant to invasive alien species.

Part B: The translation of policy arrangements into action by countries to implement policy and actively prevent and control invasive alien species IAS and the resourcing of this action, specifically:

1.  National allocation of resources towards the prevention or control of invasive alien species

Forest Department 

Forest Department 

Annual

Percentage (%)

Aichi Biodiversity Target 9 states “By 2020, invasive alien species and pathways are identified and prioritized, priority species are controlled or eradicated, and measures are in place to manage pathways to prevent their introduction and establishment”.

Under Part A, sub-indicator (1), the larger the number of invasive alien species -relevant international policies, the greater the level of a global commitment to controlling invasive alien species. The more international agreements a country is a party to, the more strongly committed the country is to control invasive alien species.

Under Part A, sub-indicator (2)(a), effective national policy and legislation underpins effective national strategies and action for preventing and controlling invasive alien species.

Measurement of Part A, sub-indicators (1) and (2)(a) was first undertaken in 2010, and published in Butchart et al. (2010), CBD (2014), McGeoch et al. (2010), and Tittensor et al. (2014). Sub-indicator (2) indicators have now also been added to include (b) national commitment (mandate and legal authority) to key invasive alien species related themes. Last updated: 13 February 2018

Under Part B, the indicator now also addresses (3) resourcing by national governments for the prevention and control of invasive alien species, as identified by the Sustainable Development Goals indicator 15.8.1 (“Proportion of countries adopting relevant national legislation and adequately resourcing the prevention or control of invasive alien species”). Adequate resourcing is vital to ensure the implementation and effective delivery of targets set.

An “Alien” species is described as one which has been introduced outside its natural distribution range because of intentional or accidental dispersion by human activity. An alien species which has become established in a natural or semi-natural ecosystem or habitat is an agent of change and threatens native biological diversity is known as an “Invasive alien species” (Convention on Biological Diversity 2016).

The introduction of an alien species can be intentional or unintentional /accidental. Alien species have been introduced intentionally for forestry, ornamental purposes, for aquaculture/mariculture, hunting, fisheries, etc. Examples of unintentional or accidental introductions include alien species that have escaped from gardens, aquaculture containment facilities, forestry, horticulture; pets and aquarium species that are released in the wild; transport contaminants and stowaways including in ballast water or as hull fouling organisms, and seeds carried in soil, equipment, vehicles, etc.

Mechanisms of the impact of invasive species include competition, predation, hybridization, and disease transmission, parasitism, herbivory and trampling and rooting. The outcomes of these impacts lead to biodiversity loss, habitat degradation, and loss of ecosystem services.

All datasets developed for the measurement of this indicator used the country name as the qualifier. Datasets can be aggregated regionally if desired.

The indicator is calculated as the simple proportion of countries (for which data are available) that have a given invasive alien species response (treaties, strategy, legislation, financing) in place.

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All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.