Limited global awareness of invasive alien species and little support for their management
Abstract
Invasive alien species (IAS) are one of the main drivers of global change and can cause a wide range of negative ecological and social impacts. Addressing these impacts requires management actions, which can fail to be effective when not supported by the public. Here, we conducted the first global survey on people’s awareness and perceptions of IAS and support for their management. Our results revealed low public awareness and understanding of biological invasions, and suggest that these are mainly influenced by peoples’ sociodemographic status rather than the social-ecological context. Greater awareness of IAS was associated with more negative perceptions towards them and greater support for their management. A large majority of people did not support the use of most management measures. These results suggest that limited public awareness may represent a major obstacle to successfully managing IAS globally, highlighting the need for broader public communication, outreach and engagement.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.sf7m0cgpn
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset contains individual-level responses from a global online survey investigating public awareness and perceptions of invasive alien species (IAS) and public support for different IAS management actions.
File: Data.xlsx
Description: The main analytical dataset. Each row represents one survey respondent.
Variables
- Knowledge
- Mentions_species_names: Binary indicator of whether the respondent mentioned at least one IAS occurring in their country.
Yes: respondent mentioned at least one IAS occurring in their country.No: respondent did not mention an IAS occurring in their country.
The IAS mentioned by respondents were checked against relevant sources to determine whether they were IAS occurring in the respondent's country. Diseases were not considered IAS.
- Mentions_species_names: Binary indicator of whether the respondent mentioned at least one IAS occurring in their country.
- Perceptions
- Sentiment_words: Sentiment associated with IAS based on the three words provided by each respondent. Respondents scored each word on a scale from -3 (very negative) to +3 (very positive). The sentiment here represents the mean sentiment.
- Management: The following variables record whether respondents supported (
Yes) or did not support (No) different management actions for IAS.- Insects
Insects_InsecticidesInsects_SterilizationInsects_Genetic_modificationInsects_TrapsInsects_RelocationInsects_biocontrol
- Animals
Animals_Lethal_injectionAnimals_PoisoningAnimals_ShootingAnimals_SterilizationAnimals_TrapsAnimals_RelocationAnimals_Genetic_modificationAnimals_biocontrol
- Plants
Plants_CuttingPlants_Digging_upPlants_HerbicidesPlants_biocontrolPlants_Genetic_modificationPlants_Relocation
- Insects
For the exact wording of each management action, please refer to the questionnaire provided with the associated publication.
- Socio-demographic variables
Gender: Gender reported by the respondentAge: Age of the respondentEducation: Education level reported by the respondentLocality: Approximate size of the locality in which the respondent livesCountry:Country in which the respondent participated in the survey
Data collection
The questionnaires were administered online by Cint between 3 December 2021 and 28 June 2022. In Russia, data collection was completed before 24 February 2022.
Approximately 400 adult respondents were targeted per country. Recruitment was stratified by age, gender, and locality (urban vs. rural).
The final number of valid responses varied among countries, resulting in a total of 20,420 respondents across 54 countries.
Participants provided informed consent and were reimbursed according to their standing agreements with Cint.
Data preparation
Survey responses were cleaned prior to analysis by removing incomplete or incoherent responses. IAS mentioned by respondents were screened to determine whether they were IAS occurring in the respondent's country. Sources used for this assessment included Plants of the World Online (POWO), the Global Naturalized Alien Flora (GloNAF) database, and the CABI Compendium.
Because respondents could provide either common or scientific names, names were translated to scientific names during data preparation. Species were also classified according to taxonomic group.
For the analyses of awareness, respondents were classified as having mentioned an IAS (Yes) if they named at least one IAS occurring in their country; otherwise they were classified as No.
Contact
Ana Novoa EEZA-CSIC and IBOT-CAS
Code/software
Excel
Human subjects data
I confirm we received explicit consent and we removed any personal data from the dataset.
The survey was conducted in 54 countries across all inhabited continents between 3 December 2021 and 28 June 2022. Approximately 400 adult respondents were recruited per country through Cint, with recruitment stratified by age, gender, and locality (urban vs. rural). After removal of incomplete or incoherent responses, the final dataset contained 20,420 valid responses.
The questionnaire consisted of three sections:
1. awareness and perceptions of invasive alien species;
2. support for different IAS management actions; and
3. socio-demographic characteristics.
Participants were asked to name up to five IAS occurring in their country. They were also asked to provide three words that immediately came to mind when thinking about IAS and to score each word from -3 (very negative) to +3 (very positive).
Respondents were subsequently asked whether they supported (Yes/No) 20different management actions targeting invasive alien insects, vertebrates, and plants. These actions represented a range of chemical, mechanical, and biological approaches to IAS management.
The questionnaire was translated into 23 languages by native-speaking co-authors.