A Weed by any Other Name: Would the Rose Smell as Sweet if it Were a Threat to Biodiversity
![handle is hein.journals/gintenlr22 and id is 159 raw text is: A Weed by any Other Name: Would the Rose Smell
as Sweet if it Were a Threat to Biodiversity?
DR. SOPHIE RILEY*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Invasive Alien Species or Useful Resource? .................... 157
3. The Use of Biofuels ................................... 159
3.1 W hat are Biofuels? ................................ 162
3.2 What are Invasive Alien Species? ....................... 162
3.3 Biofuels as Invasive Alien Species ...................... 164
4. The Difficulty of Defining Invasive Alien Species ................ 166
5. Comparing Definitions of Invasive Alien Species ................ 167
5.1 The Meaning of Alien .............................. 170
5.2 The Meaning of Invasive: Spread and Abundance versus Threat to
Biodiversity ..................................... 176
6. Can One Size Fit All? .................................. 179
7. Conclusion .......................................... 183
1. INTRODUCTION
What do giant reed, mesquite, and common cord grass have in common? Self
evidently, the species are all plants. More importantly, the species also are part of
a group of approximately 350 plants1 being considered as potential sources of
environmentally friendly fuel,2 which states hope will help resolve problems
associated with the global energy crisis3 and climate change.4 However, as states
* Dr. Sophie Riley, Lecturer in law, University of Technology, Sydney. The helpful comments of Dr. Grace
Li in reviewing drafts of this work are acknowledged as is research assistance provided by Naomi Dekhtyar. All
errors remain my own. © 2009, Sophie Riley.
1. See Ayhan Demirbas, Importance of Biodiesel as Transportation Fuel, 35 ENERGY POL'Y 4661, 4663
(2007).
2. The term environmentally-friendly fuel refers to the fact that plant-based fuels are seen as a less
environmentally harmful alternative to fossil fuels. See DEBORAH O'CONNELL ET AL., BioFUELs IN AusTRALIA-
AN OvERvIEW OF IssuEs AND PRoSPEcrS 3-8 (2007), available at https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/items/07-071
(Biofuels is used to describe plant-based fuel species seen as an alternative to fossil fuels).
3. Global Invasive Species Programme, Biofuel Crops and the Use of Non-native Species: Mitigating the
Risks of Invasion, at 3 (May 2008) [hereinafter GISP].
4. See O'CONNELL ET AL., supra note 2, at 2-3; Demirbas, supra note 1, at 4661; Sergio Ulgiati, A
Comprehensive Energy and Economic Assessment of Biofuels: When Green Is Not Enough, 20 CRIcAL
REvs. PLANT Sci. 71, 71 (2001).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/gintenlr22&div=7&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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A Weed by any Other Name: Would the Rose Smell as Sweet if it Were a Threat to Biodiversity
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