Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between past and future, and the implications of "too late", in policy documents on pacific oysters and king crabs in Norway, asking how temporal understandings in invasive species management tie in with and differ from those of other environmental problems.

Paper long abstract:

"Too late" is a temporal concept that appears in many different environmental discourses. In climate change discourses and discourses on biodiversity loss, "too late" often signposts a deterministic view of the future. The idea that something is "too late" restricts what futures are possible to imagine, as well as how much freedom of choice such futures contain.

In management discussions concerning so-called invasive alien species, however, "too late" is also used in a different fashion. Invasive alien species are defined as animals and plants that are introduced by humans into a natural environment where they are not normally found, with serious negative consequences for their new environment. Although "too late" is used to indicate that it is considered impossible to remove an invasive species from the area it has invaded, it is also used as an argument for redefining invasive alien species from environmental threats to economic resources.

Through a study of Norwegian policy documents on invasive alien species such as Pacific oysters and king crabs, this paper explores the relationship between past and future, and the implications of "too late", in discourses regarding invasive alien species. On what temporal scales are they considered aliens? How do temporal understandings in invasive species management tie in with and differ from those of other environmental problems? How does "too late" become an argument for redefining invasive alien species from environmental threats to economic resources, and what changes in the understanding of nature do such arguments entail?