Title: Economics of biosecurity across levels of decision-making: a review
Abstract: Biosecurity is a concept that has important
economic, social, ecological and health-related dimensions. By biosecurity we
mean protection of production, ecosystems, health and the social infrastructure
from external threats caused by pests, pathogens and diseases of various forms
and origins. The fact that more goods, transport platforms and people are moving
around the globe at increasing speeds provides unforeseen possibilities for
rapid spread of different types of organisms. This is exacerbated by changes in
the production structures and climate. As a result, both the benefits and the
risks of changes in the food system cross borders more often, leading to an
increased demand for biosecurity policies. Economics can be related to
biosecurity in at least three fundamental ways. First, many of the ultimate or
proximate causes of bioinvasions create economic welfare. Second, bioinvasions
result in various types of impacts, many of which are economic by nature – or at
least may be measured in economic terms. Third, the negative impacts of
invasions or their probability of occurrence can often be either avoided or
reduced. These biosecurity policies themselves have economic implications, which
often may be quite different from those caused by the biological hazard itself.
A few reviews of separate components of economics of biosecurity exist, but
there have been no attempts to review the big picture. Instead, the previous
reviews have concentrated on different components of biosecurity such as
invasive species or animal diseases. Our aim is to look at the issue in broad
terms, draw some commonalities from the research conducted, and identify areas
in which economic analyses have primarily been conducted and in which areas
there remains work to do. The review includes about 230 studies from all areas
of biosecurity up to the year 2008. The review finds that study of economics of
biosecurity is growing steadily, but is still relatively concentrated on narrow
questions, few countries, few species/diseases and few journals. [Jaakko
Heikkilä (2010). Economics of biosecurity across levels of decision-making: a
review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, Online, 24 March.]