The Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s Joint Public Advisory Committee recently convened a roundtable session in Miami, FL to consider the growing problem of invasive species in North America. The JPAC roundtable — "An Unwelcome Dimension of Trade: Invasive Species in North America" — showcased concern about this issue. The spread of invasive species — also referred to as exotic, alien, foreign, introduced, or nonindigenous species — is second only to habitat loss as a cause of decline in biological diversity. In the United States, individual state and local governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars to control infestations and damage caused by such invasive species such as the zebra mussel, Asian long-horned beetle, and snakehead fish. According to Environmental Law Institute® Senior Attorney Turner Odell, an invited participant in the JPAC roundtable, "invasive species may be among the most serious environmental and economic issues we will face as a global community in the present decade."
Equal numbers of appointed citizen delegates from each of the three North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) countries — the United States, Mexico, and Canada — comprise the JPAC. Both the JPAC and the Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) were established by a separate agreement in parallel with NAFTA itself. JPAC provides advice and structured input for the deliberations of the CEC and the Council of Parties.Odell said, "This meeting was an important first step in focusing attention on the invasive species issue and bringing it to the forefront of policy concerns in the United States and its closest trading partners." And experience with NAFTA is particularly timely given the continuing development of new trading agreements, such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), reached last week between the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, and others outside the Americas.
JPAC discussion leaders pointed to ELI’s approach and recommendations in Halting the Invasion: State Tools for Invasive Species Management, an analysis of the legal tools available to U.S. state governments to combat invasive species and a recommended self-assessment rating framework. The ELI approach provides an accessible means of assessing a jurisdiction’s ability to deal with the invasive species challenge. The approach could be utilized on an international scale to improve international coordination and adoption of mutually agreeable standards of performance among nations with respect to invasive species prevention, management, and control. ELI is also working on a model state law and examining the issue in the Asia Pacific Region.
"We look forward to working with the JPAC and the CEC as they move ahead to focus North American attention on this important, trade-related threat to our continent’s biodiversity," said Odell.
Press copies of Halting the Invasion: State Tools for Invasive Species Management may be obtained by contacting pressrequest@eli.org. An executive summary and state-by-state databases are available online through ELI’s website at http://www.eli.org/Program_Areas/Invasives/index.cfm. Printed copies of the report may be ordered for $20.00 plus shipping by calling (800) 433-5120 or via email to orders@eli.org.
For more information about invasive species, please contact Turner Odell at odell@eli.org or 202-939-3822.