Assessing alien and invasive parrot impacts in Europe using a transparent evidence-mapping framework

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractpeer-review

Abstract

Invasive alien species (IAS) present an increasingly
urgent economic, societal and environmental problem
worldwide. Effective policy and management responses
are thus essential, but rely on the ability to assess IAS
impacts before conclusive empirical evidence is available.
Consequently, a range of risk and impact assessment
schemes have been developed. To be objective, such
schemes require a transparent and inclusive evidencemapping procedure. However, instead they currently
promote use of the precautionary principle and remain
something of a “black box”, with little control on the
quantity and quality of evidence incorporated by experts.
Here, we present a framework for comprehensively
reviewing and mapping existing evidence of IAS impact for
any prescribed study area – allowing robust, transparent
and replicable assessments to be undertaken. To illustrate
the utility of this framework we applied it to the 11 species
of non-native parrots currently established within Europe.
Peer-reviewed and grey literature in multiple languages
were searched systematically for impact evidence. Some
337 accounts of evidence were collated from 210 sources.
This database, for the first time, enables an evaluation
of the quantity, quality and spatial distribution of impact
evidence for parrot species in Europe. For example, most
evidence (40%) was for agricultural impacts; however,
this largely comes from the native range with limited
evidence from Europe, despite some species having very
large populations. Within Europe, most sources report on
interspecific competition with local species (38%), but
severity of impact scoring were low. Overall, the majority
of evidence (70%) was of anecdotal quality. The presented
framework will assist both researchers and policy makers
by directing future research priorities and informing
recommendations for management solutions – both of
which are vital for designing effective evidence-informed
policy responses/conservation decisions for IAS.
Original languageEnglish
Pages159-159
Number of pages1
Publication statusPublished - 2017
EventInternational Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB) - Cartagena, Colombia
Duration: 23 Jul 201727 Jul 2017
Conference number: 28th
https://conbio.org/mini-sites/iccb-2017

Conference

ConferenceInternational Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB)
Abbreviated titleICCB 2017
Country/TerritoryColombia
CityCartagena
Period23/07/1727/07/17
Internet address

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