The thematic assessment of invasive alien species and their control produced by the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) critically evaluates evidence on biological invasions and impacts of invasive alien species. In alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the KunmingMontreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the assessment outlines key responses and policy options for prevention, early detection, and effective control of invasive alien species and mitigation of their impacts in order to safeguard nature, nature’s contributions to people, and good quality of life.
Species introduced to new regions through human activities are termed alien species. Invasive alien species represent a subset of alien species – animals, plants, and other organisms – known to have established and spread with negative impacts on biodiversity, local ecosystems and species. Many invasive alien species also have impacts on nature’s contributions to people (embodying different concepts such as ecosystem goods and services and nature’s gifts) and good quality of life. Some of the most problematic invasive alien species arrive through multiple introduction
pathways and repeated introduction.
Invasive alien species are recognized as one of the five major direct drivers of change in nature globally, alongside land- and sea-use change, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, and pollution. This assessment considers how biological invasions are facilitated by all those direct anthropogenic drivers, noting that interactions among invasive alien species can enable further biological invasions. The assessment also considers how biological invasions can be influenced by indirect drivers, identified in the IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which include demographic, economic, sociocultural, technological, or relating to institutions and governance among others. Finally, the assessment considers how biological invasions, and ultimately the impacts of invasive alien species, can be facilitated by natural drivers of change, in particular natural hazards (such as floods, storms, and wildfires) or by biodiversity loss itself.
