untitled design

Brazil has 272 animals and 210 invasive plants that threaten biodiversity, warns institute

Brazil coexists with 272 invasive exotic animals in its various ecosystems, according to the Hórus Institute for Development and Environmental Conservation database.

Also, the National Database of Invasive Exotic Species, maintained by the organization, lists at least 210 non-native plant species that have spread across Brazilian ecosystems, causing damage to the local flora.

The non-governmental organization has been monitoring, since 2005, species considered exotic because they do not originally belong to that location and invasive because they reproduce and spread in an uncontrolled manner, threatening the area’s biodiversity.

Animals

They are animals little known to the general public, such as the brown anolis lizard (Anolis sagrei), the crab (Cancer paguros) and the sun coral (Tubastrea sp.), but there are other more famous ones such as the ubiquitous dogs (Canis familiaris), domestic cats (Felis catus) and common pigeons (Columba livia)

And they arrive here, brought by man in different ways, either accidentally through ships and oil platforms, or on purpose, to serve as a source of food, as stock for fishing / sport hunting or as pets. These animals threaten local biodiversity by causing an environmental imbalance. After all, they arrive suddenly in an environment that took generations to find a balance between the different beings that inhabit that area.

Sun coral, for example, is native to the Indian and Pacific oceans. It arrived in Brazil through oil platforms manufactured abroad and brought to the Campos Basin. The red crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) arrived in Brazil, coming from the United States, through the aquarium hobby and ended up being released in rivers and lakes.

Exotic animals are not just those that come from another country. Some of them are Brazilian, but they become a problem in ecosystems where they shouldn’t be. According to the institute, no less than 118 invaders are native to Brazil, but, for some reason, have exceeded their limits of natural occurrence.

“These are species that were brought by some human influence, to an area where they did not occur naturally. And this is independent of political boundaries. That is why we say that the species may be native somewhere in Brazil, but it is invasive and causes problems in another ecosystem where it is not native”, explains the founder of Instituto Hórus, Silvia Ziller.

This is the case of the pirarucu (Arapaima gigas), which had specimens taken from the Amazon region, where it is native, for aquarism, aquaculture and sport fishing. The giant fish spread through rivers and lakes in states such as Bahia, Piauí and São Paulo, according to the database.

Animals can be susceptible to parasitic diseases, risk of disease transmission to humans, and even genetic contamination of populations of native species, which can mate with natives and generate hybrids.

It is worth mentioning that the Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits diseases such as dengue, zika and chikungunya, is also an invasive species. Originally from northeast Africa, it arrived in Brazil accidentally, probably through the slave trade.

In 2018, the National Strategy for Invasive Exotic Species was created, commanded by the Ministry of the Environment, which consists of instruments such as maintaining a database to monitor the situation and creating specific plans to deal with individual species, groups of species, regions or routes of dispersal.

As the control of invaders is difficult, especially when they have already spread over a large territory, there is a priority to detect invasions early.

But just to prove that invasive species are a difficult problem to solve, attempts to restore native flora ended up creating another problem. Among the seedlings produced on the mainland and taken to the island, common lizards (Hemidactylus mabouia) traveled, exotic species even on the American continent that came to populate Trindade.

Plants

Jackfruit trees, beach almond trees, casuarinas, boa constrictors, agaves. They are plants that are part of the Brazilian landscapes, but this was not always the case. These species are not native to Brazil and, brought from other parts of the globe by man, ended up spreading without control across the country.

“When they are introduced into an environment different from those in which they naturally occur, they [as espécies exóticas] can adapt. When they adapt, they reproduce and completely modify the natural ecological process of that environment. And when they reproduce with certain success, they become dominant”, explains Massimo Bovini, researcher from the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden and the Ilhas do Rio project.

For Ziller, it would be important to have control over these species that have invasive potential, imposing, for example, restrictions on their trade.

“Ornamental plants, in common use, had to be banned, as long as they are on the lists of invasive plants. So the flower shops would have to be inspected in order not to produce or sell these plants anymore, which we know are problem plants”, he argued.

According to her, in addition, it is necessary to invest in early detection, that is, as conservation units perceive the emergence of invasive alien species, they are eliminated. “As long as you have control, you can eliminate”.

Plants are more easily dispersed than fauna, as seeds and spores are difficult to contain. However, according to Ziller, its elimination ends up being easier because, unlike animals, plants remain still.

Agência Brasil tried to hear from the Ministry of the Environment and the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) about strategies for dealing with invasive alien species, but received no response.

Source: CNN Brasil

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular