Internet trade of invasive alien plants in Australia
E-commerce platforms can facilitate long distance dispersal of invasive alien plants. This pathway can be difficult to monitor, and invasive plants can be sold online under their correct name or misidentified. In Australia, invasive alien plants have had numerous and widespread negative impacts on the endemic flora and as a result strict importation measures and risk assessment processes have been established to prevent the arrival of unwanted invasive species. However, there is some evidence that banned species are still being sold on popular Australian E-commerce platforms. To better understand the situation, a study was conducted over a 12-month period to monitor one of these popular websites. The study set out to (1) determine what proportion of plants advertised are prohibited, (2) determine the quantity and taxonomic composition of declared plants traded, (3) determine whether current regulations reduce trade quantity, (4) characterise the most frequently traded declared plants, and (5) determine the uses of advertised plants. Over the 12-month period, 235 162 plant advertisements were reviewed and of these 10 000 detailed a total of 155 plant taxa that are prohibited to trade in at least one Australian State or Territory. There were 1 415 cases of invasive plants advertised, of which 411 breached local jurisdictional (i.e., State or Territory) laws. Opuntia cacti and invasive aquatic plants were traded in the greatest quantities with Opuntia microdasys having the greatest number of advertisements. The aquatic plants were mainly advertised for water filtering use and as habitats for aquatic animals. The study showed that trade prohibitions had no influence on the quantity and price of traded invasive plants. Future weed risk assessments should consider online trade as a key pathway for spread.
Sources
Maher J, Stringham OC, Moncayo S, Wood L, Lassaline CR, Virtue J, Cassey P (2023) Weed wide web: characterising illegal online trade of invasive plants in Australia. NeoBiota 87, 45–72. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.87.104472