Combining economic and ecological arguments to value the environmental gains from control of 35 weeds in Australia

Abstract

The control of weeds provides agricultural, environmental and social benefits. The agricultural gains typically dominate, and many studies have estimated these values. The environmental gains rest on the protection of plant communities from weed invasions, but these benefits have proved hard to value due to the lack of data from relevant market transactions. An estimate of these gains is now derived from a set of Australia-wide costs to control 35 major weeds affecting the agricultural and forestry industries. Control costs varied closely with the number of threatened special conservation areas, and with the number of threatened plant species, within the distribution of the weeds. Across all..