Invasive mosquitos, as the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti), threaten human health and well-being by transmitting diseases like the dengue, chikungunya or zika fever.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aedes_aegypti_CDC-Gathany.jpg; The picture is in the public domain.

By Bernd Lenzner, Adrián García-Rodríguez, Gilles Colling, Stefan Dullinger, Julia Fugger, Michael Glaser, Jennifer H. Hennenfeind, Ekin Kaplan, Daijun Liu, Ali Omer, Aníbal Pauchard, Helen E. Roy, Tobias Schernhammer, Anna Schertler, Peter Stoett, Lisa Tedeschi, Tom Vorstenbosch, Johannes Wessely, and Franz Essl.

Read the full paper here.

Humans are moving species to every corner of the Earth where some of them (so called invasive alien species) can become a problem to nature, people and economies. Despite being recognized as a major threat to biodiversity, invasive alien species are often overlooked in discussions towards sustainable development. In a recent article, we discuss the risks that invasive alien species pose to sustainable development and suggest how these risks could be managed.

To do so, we link potential impacts of invasive alien species to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs provide a roadmap towards a sustainable future for people and the planet by addressing all kinds of challenges to the environment (e.g., climate, life on land and below water), societies (e.g., poverty reduction, health, education) and the economy (e.g., responsible consumption, infrastructure, equality).

We show that invasive alien species can have positive and negative effects on achieving the SDGs. However, the negative effects strongly outnumber the positive ones. As ever so often, things become more complicated when looking into the details. For example, alien species introduced for a specific economic or societal benefit have often become detrimental to the environment, societies or the economy, hampering the achievement of other SDGs in the process.

We provide three recommendations about how invasive alien species should be considered within the context of sustainable development. These are 1) that invasive alien species must receive more attention within the political discussions on sustainable development, 2) that international bodies and organizations need to increase their cooperation to avoid redundant efforts with a coordinating body overseeing these activities, and 3) that better monitoring and consistent reporting based on robust indicators and standards need to be implemented to effectively monitor and track trends and impacts of invasive alien species.