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Updates: Progress and regression

Grouped by year

November, 2024

COP16 is no longer in session. Please see https://dedide.info/ecosystemservices/updates/ for my notes on the outcome so far.


The top  driver of decline in Australian native fish populations is invasive fish (which threaten 92% of threatened freshwater fish species)

A deadly fly is spreading through Central America. Experts blame illegal cattle ranching

October, 2024

Nonnative plants are a major force behind global insect invasions, study finds

An international team of researchers led by Dr. Cleo Bertelsmeier from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, argues that the global spread of nonnative plants is a key factor driving the growing number of insect invasions worldwide. The research challenges traditional assumptions about the principal causes of nonnative insect invasions.

The international COP16 biodiversity summit is being held this month in Columbia. All countries had pledged at COP15 to submit national biodiversity strategies and action plans. Target 6 on the agenda is

Mitigate or eliminate the impacts of invasive alien species, reduce the rates of establishment of invasive species by 50% by 2030

At the time of writing (four days before the summit is due to start), only 26 countries have submitted their plans. Some of the plans that have been submitted contain no mention of invasive species, even though this is regarded as a major source of biodiversity loss.

COP16: Tracking country pledges on tackling biodiversity loss

This news comes just after the release of The Living Planet report for 2024 which indicates that using an index that has tracked the fate of 35,000 populations of 5,495 species of wild vertebrates-that's animals with a spinal column, so mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish-from 1970 to the present day, over the past 50 years (1970-2020), the average size of these monitored wildlife populations has shrunk by 73%.

Wildlife populations plunge 73% since 1970: WWF


June, 2024

A new report has been published this week in Nature, Ecology and Evolution entitled "Curbing the major and growing threats from invasive alien species is urgent and achievable".

This report, authored by many of the experts who contributed to the IPBES March, 2024 book release, highlights  the impacts of invasive alien species observed today are likely to underestimate the magnitude of future impacts.
One of the findings that stood out for me

The threats posed by invasive alien species are expected to continue to rise. Every year, approximately two hundred new alien species are now being introduced globally by human activities to regions they had not been recorded before.

Also, in June, a report examines the changing biota of arctic waters due to organisms which normally live further south being forced by warming waters to move north. This alters the makeup of the community and therefore disrupts the existing food webs.

Pan-Arctic distribution modeling reveals climate-change-driven poleward shifts of major gelatinous zooplankton species


May, 2024

Puerto Rico is suffering from an invasion of several types of boa constrictors. It sounds very much like the Brown Tree Snake disaster in Guam is being repeated.

Massive invasive snakes are on the loose and spreading in Puerto Rico Story is from 2024.


April, 2024

Cost of fire-ant outbreak in Australia could be much higher than ‘flawed’ earlier prediction, data shows This article was posted in The Guardian on the basis of data newly released by The Australian Institute.


March, 2024

IPBES has published INVASIVE ALIEN SPECIES AND THEIR CONTROL, a 952 page .pdf file which brings together in one place information about the problem of invasive species

More than 37,000 established alien species, including more than 3,500 invasive alien species with documented impacts, have been recorded worldwide.


January, 2024

Article on how Queensland, Australia is coping with cane toad invasions. The toads are spreading and also evolving to suit their environments.
What is the most humane way to kill a cane toad? Scientists say it's the cool-and-freeze method

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