1. Assessment to support continued development of EU strategy to combat invasive species (ENV.B.2/SER/2009/0101r) Estimated costs of key measures & foreseen benefits of EU action
Marianne Kettunen
With Piero Genovesi, Riccardo Scalera & other experts
Stakeholder consultation
3 September 2010
DG ENV, Brussels, Belgium

2. Key measures considered / ”costed”
Prevention
EU information / early warning / rapid response system (EWRR)
IAS risk assessment
Management of key IAS pathways
Monitoring programmes
Contingency planning for rapid response actions
Control, management and restoration
Management plans
Management actions
Horizontal
Policy development, administration and coordination structures
Stakeholder engagement and communications
Research
Voluntary codes and best practices

3. Methods for estimating costs
Estimation of costs based on existing information / examples
Costs of IAS measures
Costs of similar measures of parallel policy sectors (e.g. plant health & CITES / wildlife trade)
Costs for EU27 based on examples from one / several MS and extrapolated over EU27
Indicative ranges of costs provided, based on possible levels of ambition (low – medium – high)
Possible distribution of costs between EU / MS / other stakeholders considered

4. Methods for estimating costs
Note: focus on the key components of the EU Strategy only, i.e. not a comprehensive assessment.
Note II: estimated costs are foreseen total costs related to the implementation of the EU Strategy - not additional to ongoing measures, i.e. some of the cost elements relate to already existing national and EU actions.
Note III: not possible to foresee timescales and levels of ambition for taking up IAS measures → not possible to develop a comprehensive / very detailed overall aggregate estimate for the total (e.g. annual) costs of implementing the EU Strategy.
Note IV: estimated costs should be considered as initial / rough estimations of the level / scale of costs of EU Strategy.

5. Your help & insights welcomed !
We have focused on what we thought were the likely key measures – do you feel we have captured all key measures ?
In general, do you agree with the scale / level / range of estimated costs or do you have other insights ?

6. Prevention: EU information and early warning system
As per Piero’s presentation

7. Prevention: IAS risk assessments
Key costs
Running a basic risk assessment mechanism at MS level are foreseen to average around EUR / year / Member State (Based on info from the GB)
EU-level expert panel for IAS risk assessment ~1 million EUR / year (Based a similar type of expert structure within the European Food Safety Agency)
Expert support to species-specific risk assessments ~ EUR / species-specific assessment (total) (Based on info from EPPO pest risk assessments) → total cost total costs of 1000 – 3000 RAs in future years = 15 – 45 million EUR.
Framework for marine pathway risk assessments in the EU are estimated to range from ~ EUR / year / Member State (basic ballast water reporting requirements) to over 10 million EUR / total over several years (e.g. ballast water recording + EU-wide Decision Support Systems (DSS) for marine pathway risk assessments + carrying out RAs for a number of key shipping routes) (Based on applicable info from the GB, plant health & IAS marine experts).
Note: Cost of RAs for other pathways not considered / no info available
RAs for marine pathways: based on applicable info from the GB (running RA framework), plant health (costs of reporting requirements for private actors) & IAS marine experts (costs of ballast water treatment, hull fouling, RA per shipping route, EU-wide and port-specific DSS)

8. Prevention: management of key IAS pathways (1/2)
Key costs
Intentional introduction
Framework for controlling the trade and movement of non-native, and potentially invasive, species in the EU: a minimum EUR to over 1 million EUR / year / MS (depending on ambition / volume of trade) and ~ EUR / year at the EU level / Commission. (Based on info from EU wildlife trade framework)
Unintentional introductions
Admin costs of the overall regulation and monitoring of trade-related pathways for IAS ~ EUR / year at EU level (i.e. the Commission) and around EUR / year / MS (Based on info from EU plant health framework + estimated inspection costs from Norway)
Inspection activities (e.g. inspections at border / place at destination and place of production) ~ between EUR – 2.5 million EUR / year / Member State (depending on the level of ambition). (Based on info from EU plant health framework)
Note: no info available re: infrastructure to support border control activities (e.g. quarantine measures).

9. Prevention: management of key IAS pathways (2/2)
Key costs
Unintentional introductions
Managing the spread of IAS via marine pathways, inc. uptake of systems for ballast water and hull fouling treatment + procedures to ensure compliance of shipping operators with agreed requirements (i.e. ballast water and hull fouling inspections)
The estimated costs of these measures could range between 1000 EUR – over EUR / vessel / event (depending on the level of requirements / ambition) → with over vessel calls / EU ports / month (in 2008), this could amount to a total of – EUR / month (assuming spot checks of 100 vessels / month). (Based on literature & IAS marine experts).
In addition, the estimated one-off costs for installing on-board ballast water treatment systems is estimated to range between around EUR to over EUR (total).
Note: Difficult to define costs / year.
General note: synergies between different IAS prevention activities and/or parallel policy
areas could result in a significant reduction in the level of costs for pathway control !

10. Prevention: monitoring programmes
Key costs
Note: activities related to monitoring the status and spread of IAS at the EU level are
considered to fall under the EU mechanisms for early warning and rapid response.
On-the-ground monitoring actions in MS are estimated to cost
EUR / year / MS for basic national programme and ~ EUR – 1 million EUR / year / MS for comprehensive framework for monitoring activities (e.g. including a number of more detailed one-off / baseline IAS-specific monitoring programmes and marine port baseline surveys). (Based on the info from UK & France)

11. Prevention: Contingency planning for rapid response actions
Key costs
Administration of a dedicated instrument / procedure to finance rapid action on IAS could cost ~ EUR / year at the EU level (i.e. Commission) and less than 1500 EUR / year at MS level. (Based on plant health)
Annual budget for financial support to combat threats by “IAS of EU concern” could range between 1 – 3 million EUR / year, covering an estimated 2-5 major or minor IAS eradication events / year. (Based on past spending under plant health)
Also, MS could earmark / target financing for a number of IAS of national, sub-national or local concern. Based on existing information, the costs of IAS eradication initiatives at national level could range significantly e.g. costing from EUR up to million EUR / eradication event / Member State (for eradicating limited and isolated occurrences vs. large scale and multi-year eradication events respectively). (Based on info from several countries, e.g. Norway, UK, DE, ES, FR)

12. Control, management and restoration (1/2)
Key costs
Developing EU-level action / management plans for “IAS of EU concern” ~ EUR / action plan (total) → the costs of developing EU-level action plans could range between EUR – EUR / year for a total of 2 to 8 action plans (respectively). (Based on project team’s estimate)
EU investment in management of “IAS of EU concern” could amount to a minimum of 1.5 – 9 million EUR / year, depending on the level of ambition. (Based on EU funding on IAS under LIFE)
At MS level, costs of developing national IAS management plans are known to range between 4000 EUR EUR / management plan / (total) (Based on info from Ireland, Lithuania & Italy)
Minimum earmarked national financing for IAS currently range between EUR / year / MS (Based on past financing required to complement the EU-financed management actions under LIFE)

13. Control, management and restoration (2/2)
Key costs
The costs of restoration greatly depend on the overall ambition and scale of individual restoration activities → not feasible to determine a total / desired level of investment in restoration at the EU level.
Based on existing information from the US, the costs of restoration activities at national and/or regional level can range between EUR – 2 million EUR / year.

14. Horizontal: policy development, administration and coordination structures (1/2)
Key costs
Costs of administration (e.g. coordination) of the EU Strategy at the EU level (i.e. in the Commission) could be foreseen to range between EUR – EUR / year, depending on the level of ambition. (Based on estimated salaries of 2 experts / 2 experts + dedicated inter-service IAS group / dedicated IAS unit, as under plant health)
Follow up and update the EU Strategy ~ a minimum of / EUR (total) or maximum EUR (total) investment every 1-3 years. (Based on past / current EU funding to support development of EU IAS Strategy)

15. Horizontal: policy development, administration and coordination structures (1/2)
Key costs
Developing national IAS strategies (where still needed) are estimated to be around EUR – 1.5 million / total / MS (Based on the information from Great Britain & Sweden).
At MS level, the administration and coordination of IAS activities (e.g. the implementation of the EU Strategy) could result in overall costs of less than EUR – over EUR / year / MS, according to the desired and/or required level of ambition. (Based on general salary estimates & information from Great Britain & Sweden).
Level of financial resources allocated to support further development, follow up and update of national strategies might range between / EUR / every few years – up to 2 million / EUR / year / MS (Based on the information from Ireland, Finland & Sweden).

16. Horizontal: stakeholder engagement & communications
Key costs
Depending on the level of ambition, the financial resources needed for organising stakeholder consultations and supporting stakeholder engagement at the EU level could range between EUR – over EUR / year. (Based on European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) cost of efficient & coordinated communication of key messages / info).
At the national level, these activities might result in costs of around less than EUR – EUR / year / MS. (Based on info from Ireland & the UK).

17. Horizontal: research Key costs
Possible scale of research funding dedicated to IAS at the EU level could range between 3.5 million – over 10 million EUR / year, depending on the level of ambition. (Based on IAS funding under the past EU FP programmes, both EU & MS contributions)
At MS level, the existing level of investment in IAS research indicates that the costs of supporting national / regional IAS research programmes could range between EUR EUR (total) / MS. (Based on info from AU, DE, IE & UK)

18. Horizontal: voluntary codes & best practices
Key costs
Developing voluntary codes & best practises could range between ~ 6000 EUR – EUR (total), depending on the scale of initiative. (Based on info from global, Europe, IE & UK)
Awareness raising campaigns could range between 5000 EUR – 1 million EUR (total), depending on the scale of initiative. (Based on info from UK, IE, FR & Switzerland)

19. Estimated key annual costs of EU action on IAS
Difficult to estimate – level of ambition / timescale of implementation not known !
A very indicative assessment: possible scale of total costs for EU policy action on IAS (e.g. actions at the EU and MS level) could be around 170 million – 300 million EUR / year for medium and high level ambition, respectively.
Note: excluding possible costs of control of some IAS pathways (e.g. control of marine ballast water and hull fouling) as it is difficult at this stage to estimate the possible annual costs of these actions.

20. Foreseen benefits of EU policy action
Total documented monetary impacts of IAS impacts in Europe amount to ~12 billion EUR / year (around over the last 20 years) (Kettunen et al. 2009).
Most of this total, i.e. 9.6 billion EUR, can be attributed to the costs of IAS damage (e.g. to agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, forestry and health sectors).
This estimate is generally considered as an underestimate !
Based on the above conservative assessment, the recurring ‘business-as-usual’ cost of damage by IAS today could be roughly / very conservatively estimated as an average 1 billion EUR / year minimum.
EU policy action 170 million – 300 million EUR / year vs. EU policy inaction 1 billion EUR / year.
Note: in time, costs of EU actions likely to decrease whereas costs of inaction likely to increase !

21. and promotion of policies for a sustainable environment in Europe
Thank you!
Project team: Clare Shine, Marianne Kettunen, Piero Genovesi, Franz Essl, Stephan Gollasch, Wolfgang Rabitsch, Riccardo Scalera, Uwe Starfinger and Patrick ten Brink
Also, thank you to several experts for info & comments !
IEEP is an independent, not-for-profit institute dedicated to the analysis, understanding
and promotion of policies for a sustainable environment in Europe 21