Status: Completed
Start date: 14 December 2018
Completion date: 30 November 2020
Project code: P01-B-004
Species/Threats: Multiple
Although Australia has an enviable environment for developing genetic biocontrol technologies, we must approach its ecological, community, governance and institutional aspects in a careful, integrated and responsible way.
The project team created a decision and implementation framework that will help guide strong investment for long-term genetic biocontrol work that includes the: (a) current environment for investing/managing for people who may fund, support or govern genetic biocontrol; (b) critical conditions needed for investment; and (c) enabling conditions for investors.
The objectives of this project were:
A facilitated stakeholder workshop was held in February 2020 in Canberra, Australia. Thirty-four external participants representing NGOs, industry organisations, state and federal government departments, universities, and research units attended. A range of policy and regulatory staff, wildlife managers, geneticists, ecologists, and social scientists were also present.
When asked to consider which priority pests in Australia might be most efficacious for genetic biocontrol, participants most commonly listed rodents and rabbits. The commonly cited reasons for why these pests might be most amenable were: species impact, fecundity, existing knowledge about species” biology, and laboratory/controlled trial-ability. This primary qualitative and quantitative data is currently being assessed and analysed.
A steering committee has been formed and convened its inaugural meeting ahead of planning for a stakeholder workshop which was held in February 2020. This workshop aimed to kickstart the primary elements of the project and, together with analysis of an online survey and the workshop results using the Delphi Method, will inform the direction taken going forward. A subset of pest species has been selected, and a second Survey and Workshop will be conducted in the second half of 2020 where a prioritisation framework will be developed and tested using case studies.
Carter L, Mankad A, Campbell S, Ruscoe W, Oh KP, Brown PR, Byrne M, Tizard M and Strive T (2022) Conditions for investment in genetic biocontrol for control of pest vertebrates in Australia Frontiers in Agronomy 3, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fagro.2021.806569
