green cancer

“Extinction by habitat destruction is like death in an

automobile accident, easy to see and assess.
Extinction by invasion of exotic species is like death
by disease: gradual, insidious and requiring
scientific methods to diagnose”.

species that have the ability to become

established and proliferated in a natural or semi-
natural environment and causes, by their
abundance, an imbalance in the ecosystem that
they have “invaded”
THE PROCESS

Arrival Establishment Spreading

*Multiple Introductions
THE HISTORY
Early explorers and colonists – crops
and “ornamentals”
1958- “The Ecology of Invasions by
Animals and Plants”

Today- globalization and technology

- in the Philippines and abroad

Other reasons for

Economic return, demand for exotic

products and as biocontrol agents
THE WHY’S

• Natural Causes:
Lack of natural predators - Buddleja davidii
Ecosystem Isolation - Hawaii
Climate Change - Adelges piccae
Natural Dispersal Method - Sargassum muticum
Propagule Pressure- the degree to which the
ecosystem is exposed to different numbers
and kinds of alien individuals
• Man-made Causes:
 via transportation
Unintentional:
Hitch hikers - Ballast water and zebra
mussels
 Pathogens - Leptinotarsa decemlineata
Escapees - American mink
Infrastructures - Lessepian invasion

Effects
Basically: alteration of the immediate
ecological systems

1. Biodiversity - Increase in predation : Lake

Lanao and white goby and
the Hypseleotris agilis
- Loss of habitats: Purple
loosestrifes
2. Genetic pollution
3. The economy - Expenses: lost agricultural
production and management
costs, monetary losses from
decreased tourism and
recreational revenues.

-golden apple snail

Integrated System for Invasive Species
- integrate ecological and economic
models of invasive species

Prevention through federal action

Our roles - AWARENESS

-avoid carrying living things while
traveling
-should never release plants, fish, or
other animals into a body of water
unless they come out of that body of
water
- support
“It is our collective and individual responsibility to
protect and nurture the global family, to support its
weaker members and to preserve and tend to the
environment in which we all live."