What gives us the right to meddle with the lives and outcome of other species? Homo sapiens might just be the big boss of all the invaders, originating from Africa, today we now settled into every continent and island on Earth (Curtis, 2015). As we moved around the globe, we caused massive ecological changes which include extinctions and habitat degradations (Curtis, 2015). To the extent that it is evident that Anthropocene is real (Zalasiewicz et al, 2018). But, we possess the capability and intelligence, that other species do not, to rectify and alleviate damages. Being in the midst of a sixth extinction, we need to interfere and conserve biodiversity for the greater good even if it means something as distasteful like killing.

However, looking at the definitions (mentioned in the previous blog post), it seems like we are doing it for ourselves. The definition states that a species is considered an invader if it harms the ecology, human health or economy. 2 out of 3 of the impacts are related to us, is that why we bother to kill invaders?

Drawing of the summary of invasive impacts by me

Deviating from a sixth mass extinction will demand greatly heightened efforts to conserve the already threatened species and to ease stresses on their populations. Let us compare with habitat degradation, another driver of biodiversity loss, topping at 31.4%.

Taken from Dr Coleman’s slide 43 of ENV1101 AY20/21 week 8 slides

With the primary cause of habitat degradation being deforestation, the rate of felling is 10x faster than any conceivable rate of restoration (WWF, last accessed 09 October 2020). At least half the world’s species reside in tropical forests (WWF, last accessed 09 October 2020), the difference in the rates reveals that not nearly enough is done to conserve biodiversity.

When I think of the driving factors of deforestation, I think of agricultural expansion, urbanisation, rearing of livestock, timber production, palm oil production. All of this benefits us economically and socially. The detrimental effects of deforestation are mainly ecological impacts besides the displacement of indigenous people. Even though habitat degradation is the biggest contributor to biodiversity loss, we continue at alarming rates, is it because it is productive for us? Whereas for invasive species, immediate actions (early detection and prevention of non-native species introduction) are usually taken, is it because they are not productive for us?

References

Marean CW. THE MOST INVASIVE SPECIES OF ALL. Sci Am. 2015 Aug;313(2):32-9. doi: 10.1038/scientificamerican0815-32. PMID: 26349141. 

Zalasiewicz, J., Waters, C., Williams, M., & Summerhayes, C. (2018). 177-181. Retrieved 9 October 2020, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gto.12244 

WWF, last accessed 09 October 2020 retrieved from https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/our_focus/wildlife_practice/problems/habitat_loss_degradation/