Introdução de espécies no Brasil e no mundo: algumas iniciativas e propostas de combate e prevenção a espécies aquáticas invasoras

Abstract

Exotic species constitute nowadays the second world threat to biodiversity conservation. The intense traffic of species around the planet has increased enormously due to market globalization and international traveling, but the arrival of new species is specially due to voluntary introductions for human use. Nowadays, there are few places in the planet that are still immune to exotic species, represented by a large variety of taxonomic categories and geographic origins. Recent studies estimate losses around billions of dollars in the United States and China resulting from direct and indirect impacts of exotic species. Other studies suggest that South America present one of the highest rates of biologic invasions, and Brazil as one of the countries with the highest numbers of introduced species. Although, actions and projects to combat and prevent introductions have only been recently adopted when the introduction and dispersion of an Asian snail in the south region of the country produced significant environmental impacts and, specially, economic losses. This study aims to exemplify some introductions around the world and in Brazil and also present some proposals to combat and prevent species introductions specially regarding the municipality.