Optimal Policies for Managing Invasive Species under Uncertainty

Abstract

We present an optimal control model of three stages of resources allocation for managing invasive species. Three types of temporal uncertainty are considered, involving the timing of discovery of an invasive pest, the timing of an induced technology development after the establishment and dispersion of an invasive species, and the timing of farmer adoption of induced technology as the costs of controlling the invasive species increase. Using a bioeconomic optimal control model of managing invasive species, where models in previous studies are subset within our model, we show that when sub-structured models not including all three stages are used for managing invasive species, resource allocation for adopting preventive measures before the initial discovery of an invasive pest would be supra-optimal while resource allocation for adopting conventional control measures after establishment and dispersion would be sub-optimal .