Invasive species have more severe environmental impacts in Global South, study finds

A study published in Science found invasive species cause more severe environmental impacts in Global South countries than previously assumed, overturning a long-standing belief that wealthier Global North nations bear the brunt. Researchers attribute the difference partly to weak governance and limited management capacity rather than simply more invasive species being present.

The study used a new metric, average impact severity, drawn from over 22,000 documented impact records covering more than 3,300 species, finding that even the same invasive species causes worse average damage when introduced to the Global South than to the Global North. Myanmar farmers interviewed for context described invasive species as especially harmful to those doing manual agricultural labor.

Researchers also found that economic growth was negatively related to impact severity, and that weak research capacity, worsened in Myanmar's case by the 2021 military coup, has limited the ability of affected countries to even document the scope of the problem.

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