Invasive Species Economic Impacts – Invasive Species Centre

Economic impacts of invasive species

Municipalities and conservation authorities are estimated to spend $50.8 million per year on invasive species in Ontario alone. Across Canada, invasive species pose economic threats at the federal, provincial, municipal, and individual levels.

Direct economic impacts

Direct economic impacts of invasive species include management costs (mechanical, chemical, and biological), research and monitoring programs, reduced crop yield, job losses (such as in the case of reduced forestry production), damage to infrastructure, and impacts to international trade and tariffs.

Indirect economic impacts

Indirect economic impacts of invasive species can be much more challenging to quantify, and in some cases, are significantly more devastating. Examples include loss of ecosystem services (i.e. increasing flooding, reducing resiliency to climate change), reduced biodiversity, reduced resource production, impacts to tourism and recreation, and reduced property values (such as cottage properties overrun by zebra mussels or city lots with trees affected by emerald ash borer).

Economic costs of invasive species are much lower when funds are invested in prevention and early detection efforts. Once an invasive species spreads, management is exponentially more expensive and less efficient.

On this page:

Estimated Expenditures on Invasive Species in Ontario, 2019

Estimated Expenditures on Invasive Species by Canadian Municipalities, 2021

Economic Impacts of Invasive Species Factsheet, 2023

Compared the Costs of Biological Invasions to Natural Hazards

2019 Economic Impacts Study

Between 2017-2019, we reached out to Ontario municipalities and conservation authorities via phone and email to find out how much they spend on invasive species each year. We received data from 147 municipalities and 23 conservation authorities specific to the most recent fiscal year or annual expenditures.

This report estimates how much Ontario municipalities and conservation authorities are spending on invasive species, but this is just a fraction of the economic impacts of invasive species. Combined potential impacts on agriculture, fisheries, forestry, healthcare, tourism, and the recreation industry are estimated to be approximately $3.6 billion per year in Ontario!

Where does the money go?

Our study found that municipalities and conservation authorities are spending the most money on emerald ash borer. The next highest expenditures for municipalities are zebra and quagga mussels and Spongy moth.

To learn more about the economic impacts of invasive species on Ontario municipalities and conservation authorities, check out our fact sheet and read the full study below!

Fact sheet

Full study

2021 National Invasive Species Municipal Expenditures Survey

With funding provided by Environment and Climate Change Canada, the ISC collaborated with the Invasive Alien Species National Committee to survey municipalities across Canada to find out more about their invasive species expenditures and priorities.

We disseminated the survey in 2021 and received responses from 231 municipalities reporting their data from 2020. Visit our social media channels to see some key results from the final report.

You can read the English report here and the French report here.

Economic Impacts of Invasive Species in Canada, including invasive species expenditures by management category for Federal, Provincial, and Territorial governments

English Factsheet

French Factsheet

Research from 2023 Compared the Costs of Biological Invasions to Natural Hazards

The study by Turbelin et al. (2023) quantified the economic cost of invasive species relative to natural hazards using data from the InvaCost database version 4.1. It revealed that the global economic losses from biological invasions ($1,208 billion) were in the same order of magnitude as economic losses from storms ($1,913.6 billion) and earthquakes ($1,139.4 billion) and highlighted the need for action and policy changes to protect the global economy.

The study also found that invasion costs increased faster than natural hazard costs over time with a 702% increase in reported losses between the periods of 1980 – 1999 and 2000 -2019.

A look at how the economic costs compared:

About InvaCost

InvaCost is a global, online database created to harmonize data on the cost of worldwide biological invasions. It uses a systematic, standardized methodology to collect information from peer-reviewed articles and grey literature. It has been a valuable source of data for several analyses on the economic impacts of invasive species.

Economic Impacts