Environmental weed control policy in Australia: current approaches, policy limitations and future directions

Abstract

Plant invasions of natural systems threaten biodiversity and ecosystem processes across many biomes. Historically most plant invasions have been facilitated by human activities such as industry, transport and landscape modification. Consequently, both causes and management of weed invasion are dependent on human behaviour and management advice provided by ecologists needs to take account of this fact. This paper assesses current environmental weed control policy in Australia and asks: are government, land managers and the scientific community using available social levers to achieve optimal weed management? We do this by comparing aspects of weed policy with a generalized natural resource policy framework. Adequacy of issue characterization and policy framing are discussed with particular reference to public perceptions of the weed problem, policy scaling and defining policy principles and goals. The implementation of policy Instruments, including regulation, VOluntary incentives, education, Information, motivational instruments, property-right instruments and pricing mechanisms are reviewed. Limitations of current instruments and potential options to improve instrument effectiveness are discussed. Funding arrangements for environmental weed control are also reported: environmental weed invasion generally represents an external cost to economic markets which has resulted in relatively low funding levels for control operations. Finally, review and monitoring procedures in weed programmes and policy are addressed. Rigorous monitoring systems are important in effective, adaptive weed management where control techniques are continually refined to improve ecological outcomes. The utility of maintaining links between project outcomes and policy inputs along with methods of implementing appropriate monitoring are discussed.