Using counterfactuals to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of controlling biological invasions

Ecological Applications

Volumn 26, Issue 2, 2016, Pages 475-483

  McConnachie, Matthew M ^a   Van Wilgen, Brian W ^a   Ferraro, Paul J ^b   Forsyth, Aurelia T ^c   Richardson, David M ^a   Gaertner, Mirijam ^a,d   Cowling, Richard M ^e  

^a STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY   (South Africa)

^b GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c CAPENATURE   (South Africa)

^d City of Cape Town   (South Africa)

^e NELSON MANDELA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY   (South Africa)

Author keywords

Adaptive management; Biological invasions; Cape Floristic Region; Evidence based; Impact evaluation; Nonnative species; Restoration; Tree invasions; Watershed; Working for Water program

Indexed keywords

ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT; BIOLOGICAL INVASION; CAPE FLORISTIC REGION; CONSERVATION PLANNING; COST ANALYSIS; DESIGN; ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT; INVASIVE SPECIES; LAND USE CHANGE; PLANTATION; RESTORATION ECOLOGY; TREE; WATER PLANNING; WATERSHED;

SOUTH AFRICA;

BIOLOGICAL MODEL; CLASSIFICATION; COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS; ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION; FOREST; INTRODUCED SPECIES; PLANT; POPULATION DENSITY; PROCEDURES; SOUTH AFRICA; TIME FACTOR; TREE;

CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES; COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS; FORESTS; INTRODUCED SPECIES; MODELS, BIOLOGICAL; PLANTS; POPULATION DENSITY; SOUTH AFRICA; TIME FACTORS; TREES;

EID: 84969759462     PISSN: None     EISSN: 19395582     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1890/15-0351.1     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. Abadie, A., and G. Imbens. 2006. Large sample properties of matching estimators for average treatment effects. Econometrica 74:235-267.
2. Cowling, R. M., and C. E. Heijnis. 2001. The identification of broad habitat units as biodiversity entities for a systematic conservation planning in the Cape Floristic Region. South African Journal of Botany 67:15-38.
3. Diamond, A. and J. Sekhon. 2006. Genetic matching for estimating causal effects: a general multivariate matching method for achieving balance in observational studies. Institute of Governmental Studies Working Paper 2006-35. Institute of Governmental Studies, Berkeley, California, USA.
4. Epanchin-Niell, R. S., and A. Hastings. 2010. Controlling established invaders: integrating economics and spread dynamics to determine optimal management. Ecology Letters 13:528-541.
5. Ferraro, P. J., and M. Hanauer. 2014. Advances in measuring the environmental and social impacts of environmental programs. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 39:397-417.
6. Ferraro, P. J., and S. K. Pattanayak. 2006. Money for nothing? A call for empirical evaluation of biodiversity conservation investments. PLoS Biology 4:482-488.
7. Forsyth, A. T. 2012. Identifying and mapping invasive alien plant individuals and stands from high-resolution satellite images in the central Hawequa conservation area. Thesis. University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.
8. Frazee, S., R. M. Cowling, R. L. Pressey, J. K. Turpie, and N. Lindenberg. 2003. Estimating the costs of conserving a biodiversity hotspot: a case study of the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. Biological Conservation 112:275-290.
9. Gilbert, B., and J. M. Levine. 2013. Plant invasions and extinction debts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 110:1744-1749.
10. Gren, I. 2008. Economics of alien invasive species management - choices of targets and policies. Boreal Environment Research 6095:17-32.
11. Higgins, S. I., D. M. Richardson, and R. M. Cowling. 2000. Using a dynamic landscape model for planning the management of alien plant invasions. Ecological Applications 10:1833-1848.
12. Higgins, S. I., D. M. Richardson, and R. M. Cowling. 2001. Validation of a spatial simulation model of a spreading non-native plant population. Journal of Applied Ecology 38:571-584.
13. Ho, D., K. Imai, G. King, and E. Stuart. 2007. Matching as nonparametric preprocessing for reducing model dependence in parametric causal inference. Political Analysis 15:199-236.
14. Hobbs, R. 2009. Looking for the silver lining: making the most of failure. Restoration Ecology 17:1-3.
15. Holland, P. W. 1986. Statistics and causal inference. Journal of the American Statistical Association 81:945-960.
16. Holmes, P. M., K. J. Esler, D. M. Richardson, and E. T. F. Witkowski. 2008. Guidelines for improved management of riparian zones invaded by non-native plants in South Africa. South African Journal of Botany 74:538-552.
17. Imbens, G., and J. Wooldridge. 2009. Recent developments in the econometrics of program evaluation. Journal of Economic Literature 47:5-86.
18. Keele, L. J. 2011. rbounds: perform Rosenbaum bounds sensitivity tests for matched and unmatched data. Package version 0.9. http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rbounds/index.html.
19. Kettenring, K. M., and C. R. Adams. 2011. Lessons learned from invasive plant control experiments: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Ecology 48:970-979.
20. Koenig, R. 2009. Unleashing an army to repair alien-ravaged ecosystems. Science 325:562-563.
21. Le Maitre, D. C., B. W. van Wilgen, R. A. Chapman, and D. McKelly. 1996. Invasive plants and water resources in the Western Cape Province, South Africa: modelling the consequences of a lack of management. Journal of Applied Ecology 33:161-172.
22. Le Maitre, D. C., B. W. van Wilgen, C. M. Gelderblom, C. Bailey, R. A. Chapman, and J. A. Nel. 2002. Invasive alien trees and water resources in South Africa: case studies of the costs and benefits of management. Forest Ecology and Management 160:143-159.
23. Lindenmayer, D. B., J. Wood, C. MacGregor, Y. M. Buckley, N. Dexter, M. Fortescue, R. J. Hobbs and J. A. Catford. 2015. A long-term experimental case study of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of invasive plant management in achieving conservation goals: bitou bush control in Booderee National Park in Eastern Australia. PLoS ONE 10:1-23.
24. Louw, W. J. A. 2004. General history of the South African forest industry: 1991 to 2002. South African Forestry Journal 201:65-76.
25. Marais, C., and A. M. Wannenburgh. 2008. Restoration of water resources (natural capital) through the clearing of invasive alien plants from riparian areas in South Africa - costs and water benefits. South African Journal of Botany 74:526-537.
26. Mascia, M., S. Pailler, M. Thieme, A. Rowe, M. Bottrill, F. Danielsen, J. Geldmann, R. Naidoo, A. Pullin, and N. Burgess. 2014. Commonalities and complementarities among approaches to conservation monitoring and evaluation. Conservation Biology 169:258-267.
27. McConnachie, M. M., R. M. Cowling, B. W. van Wilgen, and D. A. McConnachie. 2012. Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of invasive plant removal: a case study from South Africa. Biological Conservation 155:128-135.
28. McConnachie, M., R. M. Cowling, C. Shackleton, and A. Knight. 2013. The challenges of alleviating poverty through ecological restoration: insights from South Africa's "Working for Water" programme. Restoration Ecology 21:544-550.
29. McConnachie, M., B. W. van Wilgen, D. M. Richardson, P. Ferraro, and A. Forsyth. 2015. Estimating the effect of plantations on pine invasions in protected areas: a case study from South Africa. Journal of Applied Ecology 52:110-118.
30. Moeller, J. 2010. Spatial analysis of pine tree invasion in the Tsitsikamma region, Eastern Cape, South Africa: a pilot study. Honors dissertation. Department of Geography, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
31. Naidoo, R., A. Balmford, P. J. Ferraro, S. Polasky, T. H. Ricketts, and M. Rouget. 2006. Integrating economic costs into conservation planning. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21:681-687.
32. Panetta, F. D. 2009. Weed eradication: an economic perspective. Invasive Plant Science and Management 2:360-368.
33. Pearl, J. 2009. Causality: models, reasoning and inference. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
34. R Development Core Team 2013. R: A language for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. www.r-project.org
35. Richardson, D. M., and P. J. Brown. 1986. Invasion of mesic mountain fynbos by Pinus radiata. South African Journal of Botany 52:529-536.
36. Richardson, D. M., and R. M. Cowling. 1992. Why is mountain fynbos invasible and which species invade? Pages 161-181 in B. W. van Wilgen, D. M. Richardson, F. J. Kruger and H. J. van Hensbergen, editors. Fire in South African mountain fynbos. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.
37. Rosenbaum, P. 2002. Observational studies. Springer, New York, New York, USA.
38. Rouget, M., D. M. Richardson, R. M. Cowling, J. W. Lloyd, and A. T. Lombard. 2003. Current patterns of habitat transformation and future threats to biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems of the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. Biological Conservation 112:63-85.
39. Roura-Pascual, N., R. M. Krug, D. M. Richardson, and C. Hui. 2010. Spatially-explicit sensitivity analysis for conservation management: exploring the influence of decisions in invasive alien plant management. Diversity and Distributions 16:426-438.
40. Roura-Pascual, N., D. M. Richardson, R. A. Chapman, T. Hichert, and R. M. Krug. 2011. Managing biological invasions: charting courses to desirable futures in the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. Regional Environmental Change 11:311-320.
41. Sekhon, J. S. 2011. Multivariate and propensity score matching software with automated balance optimization: the matching package for R. Journal of Statistical Software 42:1-52.
42. Simberloff, D., I. M. Parker, and P. N. Windle. 2005. Introduced species policy, management, and future research needs. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 3:12-20.
43. Spear, D., L. C. Foxcroft, H. Bezuidenhout, and M. A. McGeoch. 2013. Human population density explains alien species richness in protected areas. Biological Conservation 159:137-147.
44. Stager, J. C., P. A. Mayewski, J. White, B. M. Chase, F. H. Neumann, M. E. Meadows, C. D. King, and D. A. Dixon. 2012. Precipitation variability in the winter rainfall zone of South Africa during the last 1400 yr linked to the austral westerlies. Climate of the Past 8:877-887.
45. van Wilgen, B. W. 2009. Evolution of fire and invasive alien plant management practices in fynbos. South African Journal of Science 105:335-342.
46. van Wilgen, B. W. 2013. Fire management in species-rich Cape Fynbos shrublands. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 11:35-44.
47. van Wilgen, B. W., W. J. Bond, and D. M. Richardson. 1992. Ecosystem management. Pages 345-371 in R. M. Cowling, editor. The ecology of fynbos: nutrients, fire and diversity. Oxford University Press, Cape Town, South Africa.
48. van Wilgen, B. W., D. M. Richardson, and S. I. Higgins. 2000. Integrated control of alien plants in terrestrial ecosystems. Pages 118-128 in G. Preston, G. Brown and E. van Wyk, editors. Best management practices for preventing and controlling invasive alien species. Working for Water Programme, Cape Town, South Africa.
49. van Wilgen, B., R. Cowling, C. Marais, K. Esler, M. McConnachie, and D. Sharp. 2012a. Challenges in invasive alien plant control in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 108:11-12.
50. van Wilgen, B. W., D. C. Le Maitre, A. Wannenburgh, I. M. Kotze, L. van den Berg, and L. Henderson. 2012b. An assessment of the effectiveness of a large, national-scale invasive alien plant control strategy in South Africa. Biological Conservation 148:28-38.