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National Invasive Species Information Center
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Home / International / South America

South America

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Spotlights

Galápagos Islands Have 10 Times More Alien Marine Species Than Once Thought (Mar 28, 2019)
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
More than 50 non-native species have found their way to the Galápagos Islands, over 10 times more than scientists previously thought, reports a new study in Aquatic Invasions published Thursday, March 28. The study, a joint effort of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Williams College, and the Charles Darwin Foundation, documents 53 species of introduced marine animals in this UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the largest marine protected areas on Earth. Before this study came out, scientists knew about only five.
Continued Recovery of Pinzón Island: The Result of the Eradication of Black Rats in 2012 (Jan 5, 2018)
Galapagos Conservancy.
The restoration of Pinzón Island continues following the successful rat eradication campaign in December 2012, carried out by the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD), in collaboration with Island Conservation and The Raptor Center. In addition to the exciting news of natural recruitment of juvenile tortoises into the population, a potentially new endemic snail species has recently been discovered.
Researchers Help Design Incentive Programs to Rid South America of Invasive Beaver (Jan 11, 2016)
Virginia Tech.
North American beavers have wiped out 30 percent of forests along rivers and streams in Tierra del Fuego, a remote archipelago at the southern tip of South America, causing the greatest landscape change to these fragile forests in the last 10,000 years. It’s no surprise, then, that the governments of Chile and Argentina want the invasive beavers gone. But eradicating them has proven to be difficult, researchers found, because it requires the participation of every single landowner in the area.

Selected Resources

The section below contains highly relevant resources for this subject, organized by source. Or, to display all related content view all resources for South America

Partnership
Brazil National Invasive Alien Species Database
Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN). I3N Invasive Species Network. Horus Institute for Environmental Conservation and Development.
Galapagos Invasive Species
Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk; Charles Darwin Foundation; Galapagos National Park; Ecuadorian Agricultural Health Service in Galapagos; Galapagos National Institute.
Academic
Control and Prevention of Invasive Bivalves
La Plata National University (Argentina). Invading Mollusks Research Group.
Laboratorio de Invasiones Biológicas

Universidad de Concepción (Chile).

Professional
Bioinvasão Brasil (Bioinvasion Brazil)

Instituto Brasileiro de Biodiversidade (Brazil).

Bioinvasão Brasil is a digital platform developed with the objective of making available records of invasive alien species in Brazil. Special Note: In Portuguese.

Guía de las Especies Introducidas Marinas y Costeras de Colombia (Guide to Introduced Marine and Coastal Species of Colombia) (PDF | 9.37 MB)

Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (Institute for Marine and Coastal Research, Colombia).

Special Note: In Spanish

Horus Institute of Environmental Development and Conservation
Instituto Hórus de Desenvolvimento e Conservação Ambiental (Horus Institute of Environmental Development and Conservation, Brazil).
Special Note: Site in Portuguese and Spanish
Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation: Combating Invasive Species in Galapagos with the ABG
Galapagos Conservancy.