Cal. Food & Agric. Code § 5260 — Invasive Pest Planning

The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the following:

(a) California is home to more species of plants and animals in the world and the highest number of species found nowhere else in the world.

(b) The state’s plants and animals coexist to create the complex ecosystems upon which so much of the state’s people and economy depend.

(c) Global travel, global trade, and climate change are introducing invasive animals, plants, insects, and plant and animal diseases to California.

(d) Global warming is changing ecosystems at an unprecedented pace. These changes bring invasive species and pests that pose direct threats to the state’s native and agricultural biodiversity.

(e) The State of California should undertake advance planning on whether and how to address those invasive animals, plants, insects, and plant and animal diseases that are a threat to the state’s agriculture, environment, or economy.

(f) The Legislature fully recognizes that any prediction of which invasive pests will enter California cannot be precise because of the many entry mechanisms.