More than 300 Invasive Alien Species Documented in Brazil

Pastures in Brazil's Cerrado grasslands are a source of invasive alien species, including molasses grass (Melinis minutiflora Beauv). Photos (l-r): © Scott S. Warren; © Anita Diederichsen/TNC

The Conservancy's Global Invasive Species Initiative

The Nature Conservancy has discovered that invasive species are one of the top sources of stress across all priority conservation areas. Conservation success will depend greatly on preventing new invasions and managing invaded systems effectively. Building on years of experience in invasive species management, the Conservancy has created the Global Invasive Species Initiative to address this urgent and pervasive threat.

Learn more about the Conservancy's global work to abate the threat of invasive species.

Symposium in Brasília launches South America Invasive Species Program

On October 4th, the Conservancy and the Brazilian Ministry of Environment released for the first time the results of a study documenting nearly 200 non-native terrestrial species throughout the country. 64% of these species are widespread, causing negative impacts on Brazilian biodiversity and affecting local areas or even entire regions. Complementary data from the University of São Paulo and the Federal University of Viçosa add up to more than 300 non-native species in the country, when taking into consideration marine and freshwater ecosystems.

The results of these studies were announced in Brasília at Brazil’s first Symposium on Invasive Alien Species. The event also marked the official launch of the Conservancy’s South America Invasive Species Program. The Symposium was officially opened by the Brazilian Minister of Environment, Marina Silva, the Secretary of Biodiversity and Forests, João Paulo Capobianco, and other government representatives. The audience included more than 500 people from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), university staff and students, private companies using non-native species, and governmental agencies dealing with the environment, legal regulations, and rural development, and trade.

Invasive alien species are those that have been introduced in a new environment and, for lack of predators or other natural competition, disrupt its balance, threaten native species and may cause serious economic or public health problems. Some species that have had a devastating impact in Brazil include the giant African snail (Achatina fulica), golden mussel (Limnoperma fortunei), European hare (Lepus europaeus), sabiá (Mimosa caesalpiniifolia), molasses grass (Melinis minutiflora), brachiaria grass (Brachiaria spp.), and Japanese raisin tree (Hovenia dulcis).

Yet, the Conservancy’s concern is not just with the alien species that are already having a widespread impact. “We’re also quite concerned with several other alien species that currently occur in natural environments in Brazil, but have not yet established themselves as invasive. However, the tendency is for the situation to worsen, since these species have a proven history of invasion in other parts of the planet” says Sílvia Ziller, the Conservancy’s Invasive Species Coordinator for South America.

The South America Invasive Species Program is aimed at raising awareness in the different countries, starting from determining information gaps to defining the necessary legal infrastructure that permits action to take place in the field. Important approaches of the Program are generating information on economic losses incurred by invasive species, capacity building, and communicating stories of success to prove the need and viability of addressing the invasive species threat. The Nature Conservancy is part of the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP, www.gisp.org), which is working to abate the threat of invasive alien species throughout the world, and is preparing a side meeting on the issue for the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting to take place in March, 2006, in Brazil.