Phytosanitary Measures to Prevent the Introduction of Invasive Species

Regulatory animal and plant protection strives to safeguard agricultural species from pests, diseases, and competition from foreign non-beneficial species. The traditional concern for protecting only economic species (crops, livestock, grazing lands) has recently been broadened to include endangered native species and ecosystems in general, upon the acceptance that ecosystems other than agricultural also provide tangible economic benefits to humanity (Perrings et al. 2000), not to mention what are considered the more intangible benefits arising from our innate affinity with nature (Wilson 1984).

The problem with invasive species is as critical now as it has ever been. It could be argued that regulatory animal and plant protection has not done a good job at protecting economic species, let alone performing its more recent task of protecting ecosystems. Still, that apparent failure in the prevention of invasive species must be measured in light of the magnitude of the ever increasing problem, the modest amount of resources directed toward it, and educated guesses about what shape the world would be in without regulatory protections.