ABSTRACT
This chapter situates the PAM incursion within the web of social systems and human activities that contributed towards creating and exacerbating it. An important contributing factor was the late twentieth-century rise in global trade, which increased the opportunities for species from one locale to migrate to new ones. Compounding this problem were technological developments that decreased travel times and increased the likelihood a foreign species would survive the trip. Another mediating factor was the New Zealand government’s reluctance to adequately fund biosecurity border controls, which increased the likelihood that a stowaway species could establish itself in New Zealand. These problems were further compounded by the government’s ineffective initial response to PAM, which allowed the moth population to grow and spread considerably. After reading this chapter readers should have a clearer sense of how human activities, policies, and processes contribute to producing biosecurity crises.
