ECOlogical and ECONomic trade-offs of VAluable invaSions: Insights, Opportunities and Novel Solutions – EconVasions

Invasive alien species (IAS) pose serious threats to biodiversity and ecosystem health, affecting human well-being. Many of those species have multiple roles, providing both benefits and burdens to ecosystems and stakeholders. Managing these Multiple-Role invasive species (MR-IAS) involves complex trade-offs, necessitating interdisciplinary approaches for optimal outcomes. EconVasions responds to the critical need to assess these trade-offs and develop solutions that reconcile conflicts from these species, in line with conservation goals and societal needs. Moving beyond reductive monetary comparisons of benefits and costs that fail to fully capture the complex realities of MR-IAS impacts, EconVasions will be developing a robust conceptual framework, initiating this process with expert elicitation, workshops and systematic reviews. This will result in a dynamic database, designed with protocols that ensure transparency and methodological rigor. The database will enable a broad spectrum of analyses, facilitating in-depth exploration of MR-IAS and revealing patterns, trade-offs and gaps in geographical, taxonomic and interdisciplinary research. Importantly, it will serve as a structured platform for analyzing successful case studies, focusing on their key attributes identified through improved wellbeing outcomes and insights from experts. The approach includes a comprehensive analysis of conditions under which MR-IAS benefits arise, focusing on the origins of their ambivalent impacts across spatial, temporal, and stakeholder scales. The assessment extends to social and economic-minded descriptors such as market dynamics, human settlement trends, property rights, historical land use, path dependence, uncertainties and intangible impacts, recreational and aesthetic values, economic assessment methods and socio-demographic elements. EconVasions further leverages bioeconomic models for data-rich case studies to delve into trade-offs in MR-IAS management, with a particular focus on navigating uncertainty. Expanding on the foundational understanding of MR-IAS and their management EconVasions transcends traditional academic boundaries, fostering the development of transparent and evidence-based policies. The project is further structured around three pivotal research axes: Equity, Marine, and Arctic ecosystems, each representing an uncharted research territory. The project’s focus on overlooked dimensions of equity will address unevenness in distribution of benefits and burdens from MR-IAS across different stakeholder groups. Examining perceptions of equity such as the privatization of benefits versus the socialization of costs from MR-IAS, EconVasions aims to advance invasion science and management, adding depth to the social science dimensions of natural resource management. EconVasion’s focus on advancing understanding of MR-IAS within under-researched marine ecosystems centers on socio-ecological dynamics in coastal communities and fisheries and is set to contribute to advances in marine sciences and efficacy of marine conservation efforts. EconVasions' focus on the rapidly evolving Arctic ecosystems stands to make groundbreaking contribution in a region of critical importance where social sciences on IAS are scarce. Recognizing the Arctic's unique position as largely underexplored yet rapidly evolving region at the crossroads of resource exploitation and conservation, it is as an ideal case study for advancing understanding of MR-IAS and their trade-offs. EconVasions delves into an uncharted and intricately contentious domain, designing and implementing novel interdisciplinary approaches that entail high-risk yet potential for high-gain outcomes, poised to significantly advance invasion science, environmental policy, and the integration of social science perspectives.