Ecological benefits of the Cold War

Scientific Blogging: When people think of the Cold War they tend to dwell on all negatives that came with it: totalitarian governments, proxy wars, a nuclear arms race, and so on. But looking back on the period, the authors of a new paper in the journal Biological Conservation say there was an odd ecological benefit that resulted from the interruption of trade that occurred between Eastern and Western Europe during the Cold war--fewer invasive species.

"Global trade is a real concern for invasive species, and the lessons we can learn from the Cold War offer a warning flag to developing countries that are now expanding in an international economy," said co-author Susan M. Shirley.

Control or eradication of invading species is extremely difficult and expensive, Shirley said, and prevention of animal importation is the only sure approach to address this problem. It relates not just to birds, which were the focus of this research, but to forest pests, fisheries, non-native crustaceans and many other species.

…The study found that prior to the Cold War, Western Europe had 36 non-European introduced species and Eastern Europe had 11. By the time that period of international tension and restricted trade ended, Western Europe had experienced an increase to 54 non-European introduced bird species, but Eastern Europe had actually declined from 11 to five.

"The isolation of the Eastern European bloc from the west during the Cold War led to a decline in the number of birds introduced, the number of introduction events and the number of bird species established," the study authors wrote in their report….

A border tower in what used to be East Germany