Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the annual cost of invasive species to the forestry industry.
A 2010 report entitled “The Economic Cost of Invasive Non-Native Species on Great Britain”, based on research commissioned jointly by the GB Administrations, estimated that the annual cost of invasive non-native species to forestry was £109,396,000. The table below provides a breakdown of this figure.
The types of impact costs taken into account are provided in the report, which is available on the on the website of the GB Non-native Species Secretariat at http://www.nonnativespecies.org/downloadDocument.cfm?id=487.
England | Scotland | Wales | Great Britain | |
Rabbit | £24,352,000 | £37,899,000 | £7,766,000 | £70,017,000 |
Deer | £10,886,000 | £3,866,000 | £2,626,000 | £17,378,000 |
Edible Dormouse | £250,000 | £0 | £0 | £250,000 |
Grey Squirrel | £3,963,000 | £1,219,000 | £915,000 | £6,097,000 |
Rhododendron | £2,874,000 | £2,874,000 | £2,873,000 | £8,621,000 |
Insects | £612,000 | £2,603,000 | £517,000 | £3,732,000 |
Plant Pathogens | £1,195,000 | £8,000 | £153,000 | £1,356,000 |
Quarantine and research | £1,648,000 | £197,000 | £100,000 | £1,945,000 |
Total | £45,780,000 | £48,666,000 | £14,950,000 | £109,396,000 |