The sustainable management of invasive alien species: the case of Small Hive Beetle

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.