ABSTRACT
The roles of both people and nature have been identified as interactions at the core of biological invasions (Rotherham, 2005a, b; Rotherham et al, 2005). This chapter focuses on two specific aspects of the invasion paradigm, first that of the deliberate introduction of plants and animals around the world by the Victorian acclimatization societies, and second the Wild Garden Movement. These two 19th-century phenomena led directly to many of the issues and challenges that face conservation today. Important within this consideration are the changing perceptions and attitudes of people towards nature, and especially to the exotic, over the period from the early 19th century to the end of the 20th century. While Davis et al (2001) addressed the changing attitudes towards exotic plants and animals in Britain consequent on the writings and broadcasts of Charles Elton, this wider influence of fashion and taste in shaping responses to aliens has generally been overlooked. Furthermore, the critical role of the practical manifestations of fashion such as the accidental or even deliberate introduction of now invasive species to the countryside has not been recognized. This chapter provides an insight into the importance of the human cultural role in facilitating invasions, and how perceptions and attitudes have affected this. Crossing boundaries of ecological science and history it considers two specific British examples that together created many of the invasions of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The problem of aggressive and invasive plants and animals is not new but the scale of impact combined with rapid climate change and other environmental 234fluxes is dramatic. Starting points for discussion must be deciding what is alien and what is a problem (Gilbert, 1989, 1991, 1992). An alien species is a plant, animal, or microorganism not ‘native’ to an area, but which has been accidentally or deliberately introduced by humans. It may or may not be invasive and in fact only about 0.1 per cent of aliens are damaging. Furthermore, the spread of species across the planet is not new but recent horror stories have stirred up a debate among ecologists, politicians, industry and the public. Indeed there are good reasons why this is so. Some 15 per cent of Europe’s 11,000 aliens have environmental or economic impacts and damage to the UK economy is estimated at £2bn per annum. However, underlying the headlines are deep-seated questions of what is native and where, what is alien and when. From Spanish bluebell, to eagle owls and Canada geese, and from big cats, beavers and signal crayfish to wild boar, which ones should get a free pass?
These are issues frequently overlooked or ignored, but history is informative in such debates. In particular, it is worth considering how human actions have triggered invasions and indeed, how many of these were deliberate acts. It then quickly becomes apparent that many invasive alien species were initially welcomed and furthermore, that human attitudes to these plants and animals are not fixed in time. Our responses to what we now see as problem alien species are often subjective, not objective, and those regarded as problems are chosen very selectively. The past roles of two particular English or British groups are especially informative when we try to understand both today’s problems (some of which cannot be doubted) and the causes of many invasive colonizations. These two examples are the ‘Victorian Wild Garden Movement’ and the ‘Acclimatization Societies’.
