Within Australia, 1783 alien plants have established populations and 350 of these became naturalised between 1980 and 2010. Future invasions are anticipated through emerging illegal trade (facilitated by e-commerce marketplaces) in invasive plant species.
The trading of high-risk invasive species and declared pests via e-commerce platforms is recognised as a significant pathway for the introduction of organisms into new areas, which, in-turn can create major biosecurity risks to human health, food security, agricultural health, and biodiversity loss throughout the world.
A range of innovative solutions are required to effectively manage the biosecurity risks of the e-commerce marketplace in invasive species and this project will develop software and analytical approaches to address this priority, and greatly support the data-collection, surveillance activities, and compliance, as well as the reputation of biosecurity agencies charged with preventing new alien plant incursions.
This project will share the methodological and ultimately end-user platforms pursued by a sister CISS supported project: Understanding and intervening in illegal trade in non-native species.
The long-term benefits of this project will ensure that effective interventions are in place nationally for monitoring key international and domestic online sources of illegal plants and e-commerce trade pathways.
Completed
Phill is a leading global change biologist. He has published extensively (>200 papers) on the conservation, transport and trade in animal species. Phill leads a research intensive laboratory at the University of Adelaide.
He teaches extensively in ecological research and research methods, and is the coordinator for the University of Adelaide’s Bachelor of Science Advanced program. Phill has been awarded a large number of competitive international research project and training grants (totalling more than AU$6M).
Phill is an experienced scientific communicator and regularly engages with stakeholders, media, and scientific forums.
The project receives funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
February 2021 update:
The complete list of declared plants in Australia contains 1141 unique species and 44 whole genera. This list is separated by jurisdictions (states and territories), along with regional status where applicable. Any associated legal conditions, the common and trade names, and the higher taxonomy have also been recorded.
Twelve sites were monitored, resulting in over 20,000 listings which have matched with our search terms, approximately 10% of these have been cleaned. Of those listings cleaned, 432 detections have been made with 100 different declared species detected.
Reports:
Brooks, S. Erbacher, K. & Maher, J. (2022) Progress towards the eradication of Limnocharis flava from Australia. Proceedings of the 22nd Australia Weeds Conference, Adelaide – Page 262 https://www.dropbox.com/s/dd8lpjhu8jve7uc/22AWC_Proceedings_Rev_B_SEC_IDX.pdf?dl=0
Maher J, Stringham OC, Moncayo S, Wood L, Lassaline CR, Virtue J, Cassey P (2023) Weed wide web: characterising illegal online trade of invasive plants in Australia. NeoBiota 87: 45-72. https://invasives.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Characterising-illegal-online-trade-of-invasive-plants-Cassey-P.pdf
Understanding and Intervening in Illegal Trade in Non-Native Species Project: Final Report
Scientific Publications: