The Case of Small Hive Beetle
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The sustainable management of invasive alien species: the case of Small Hive Beetle CRISTINA SALVIONI1 AND GIOVANNI FORMATO2 1 Department of Economics - University of Chieti-Pescara [email protected] 2 IZSLT – Rome (Italy) Paper prepared for presentation for the 166th EAAE Seminar Sustainability in the Agri-Food Sector August 30-31, 2018 National University of Ireland, Galway Galway, Ireland Copyright 2018 by AUTHORS. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. The sustainable management of invasive alien species: the case of Small Hive Beetle CRISTINA SALVIONI1 AND GIOVANNI FORMATO2 1 Department of Economics - University of Chieti-Pescara [email protected] 2 IZLT – Rome (Italy) Abstract Invasive alien species (IAS) are recognized as a key pressure on biodiversity and a priority for action by the European Commission. While in the past the impacts of IAS were underestimates, now there is general concern on this matter. The final goal is to reduce their potential ecological and economic impacts. Moreover, there is the common idea, shared among EU Member States, that IAS require major expenditures on projects focused on prevention, control and mitigation activities. The internationally agreed hierarchical approach to reduce and control IAS includes three distinct types of measures: prevention, early detection, and rapid eradication. Another goal of the European Union is to avoid any further the spread of those IAS that are already well-established in the EU to minimize the harm they can cause. The costs associated with the application of this approach are evaluated differently according to stakeholder positions but include damage to existing economic interests. This is frequent cause of conflict in IAS management. In addition to this, responsibility for IAS control is shared between various sectors at various levels and this is cause of institutional and administrative conflicts of interest. For the management strategy to be effective, stakeholders need to be engaged in the strategy and institutional coordination need to be strengthened. In this paper we explore the case of the introduction in the Calabria region (Italy) in 2014 of the invasive alien specie Small Hive Beetle (SHB), Aethina tumida. Here it become clear that the engagement of stakeholders, together with good institutional coordination are vital to achieve sustainable and proper management in relation to IAS. SHB was first detected in southern Italy in 2014 and, despite the adoption of strong eradication measures, it is so far still present there. Infestations of SHB can cause considerable financial losses to beekeepers and to the Government. The main associated costs for beekeepers are the extra time spent managing the hives to detect and control the beetles, and the losses in honey. In fact, honey that is contaminated by the beetles is no longer saleable being it unpalatable. In the worse cases, A. tumida is able to heavily damage wax comb and reduce honey bee population up to colony losses. In addition to the private costs borne by beekeepers, there are the costs borne by public institutions in charge of IAS control. A surveillance system has been put in place to detect the presence of SHB in Italy. Eradication measures have been applied since 2014, including the destruction of all colonies at apiary sites whenever a single infested colony was found, and compensations paid to beekeepers for the destruction of infested apiaries. These measures resulted in SHB eradication only in the Sicily region. In the Calabria region, even though around 3600 apiaries were destroyed, there is still a low prevalence and slow spread of the pest. Introduction Invasive alien species (IAS) are recognized as a key pressure on biodiversity and a priority for action by the European Commission. While in the past the impacts of IAS were underestimates, now there is general agreement that IAS require major expenditures on prevention, control and mitigation projects in order to reduce their potential ecological and economic impacts. The internationally agreed hierarchical approach to combatting IAS includes three distinct types of measures: prevention, early detection, rapid eradication and, finally, when some IAS of Union concern are already well- established, management not to spread any further and to minimize the harm they cause. IAS management is often driven by many heterogeneous public and private actors. Each group has different preferences over IAS control measures and what is an acceptable risk level of incurring an invasion (e.g. Garcia-Llorente 2008; Mills et al. 2011; Humair et al 2014; Reed and Curzon 2015). Under such circumstances, reaching an agreeable set of actions towards the control of an invader can prove quite challenging (e.g. Liu et al. 2012; Touza et al. 2014; Marzano et al. 2015).” This task is often further complicated by a fragmented Legal and Institutional Frameworks dealing with IAS, and by low levels of coordination between agencies responsible for sanitary matters, agriculture and nature conservation. All these are common problems in IAS management (Shine et al. 2000). Since engagement of stakeholders and institutional coordination are vital to achieve longer term sustainable management in relation to IAS, the IUCN - The World Conservation Union has called upon the use of a Strategic Planning Processes. The first step toward the definition of such strategy is to identify sectors and pathways associated with alien species introduction and/or use. This paper is the first result of an on-going research project aiming to analyze costs and benefits of the strategy of eradication of Small Hive Beetle (SHB), Aethina tumida, in Italy. In the rest of the paper we first discuss the private, public and social costs associated with SHB, then we review existing control measures as well as legal and institutional frameworks to identify gaps, weaknesses and inconsistencies. Damage cost of SHB The SHBs are scavengers and parasites of social bee colonies originates from Sub-Saharan Africa. Within its natural range it is hardly regarded as a plague, as most honey bee colonies are able to cope with its presence SHBs have emerged as an invasive species and were first noticed in November 1996 in South Carolina in the United States. Since then, they have spread rapidly and been recorded from Egypt (2000), Australia (2001), Canada (2002), Portugal (2004), Jamaica (2005), Mexico (2007), Hawaii (2010), Cuba (2012), El Salvador (2013), Nicaragua (2014), Italy (2014), the Philippines (2014), Brazil (2016), and South Korea (2017). Only weakened and diseased colonies are susceptible to damage by the beetle. To some extend this is also the case in areas outside of its natural range, such as the United States, Australia and Italy. As the beetle is able to survive the climatic conditions of the United States and Canada, it is likely to become established in most parts of Europe. Unlike the Varroa destructor mite, the small hive beetle does not directly attack bees. It harms the entire colony, moving into the hive and destroying the resources that the bees need to survive. The brood nest of honey bees offers adult beetles ideal conditions to reproduce. Their larvae feed on the stored honey and pollen and destroy the combs. They tunnel through the combs, undermining them and leaving behind slimy defecation products. The larvae contaminate the honey, causing it to ferment, spoil and then ooze out of the combs, making it useless to both the bees and the beekeepers. Bees protect themselves against the invasion by fleeing the hive, leaving the honey and their brood behind. The beetles are then able to reproduce undisturbed for some time, and the next generation then searches for new host colonies. Left to themselves, a heavy beetle infestation can completely destroy a bee colony within a week. For example, in the USA within two years from the discovery of A. tumida, at least 20,000 bee colonies had been destroyed by the mite. A good management by beekeepers is necessary to protect against A. tumida. Maintenance of strong colonies, good husbandry and limited movements have proved to be key elements of protection. At present beekeepers in only a few countries have access to a limited number of insecticides to control the small hive beetle1. None of them are registered in Europe. In the absence of synthetic treatment options, beekeepers are forced to manually remove the beetles from their hives or lure them into traps. Infestations of SHB can cause considerable financial loss to beekeepers (Delaplane, 1998). First, beekeepers experience a loss of products (sales) because the larvae defecate in the honey and cause it to ferment; this produces a frothy mess in supers and honey houses. Honey that is contaminated is no longer saleable and is also unpalatable to bees so it cannot be used as bee feed (Delaplane, 1998; Calderón et al., 2006). Second, beekeepers may experience a loss of assets, namely colony loss, since combs and entire colonies are sometimes abandoned by bees once they have become infested (Delaplane, 1998).Third, beekeepers experience an increase in production cost due to the extra time and labor needed to detect and control the beetles. In addition to these, beekeepers may bear additional costs to comply with obligations and requirements defined by control strategies established by (local, national or international) authorities. For example, they may incur in a loss of market (hence of revenues) as a consequence of the introduction of quarantines or bans on the movements of live bees out of the zone under protection. Apart from the costs borne by the bee industry, invasions of SHB can cause large negative impacts on natural environment, i.e. external costs borne by the society as a whole. The decline in bee numbers due to infestations by SHB can result in a significantly negative impact on pollination in habitats where plants rely on bees (e.g.