Boosting Biosecurity Defences: Royalties for Regions

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The Boosting Biosecurity Defences program is a collection of projects and activities that aim to increase Western Australia's capability to prepare for and respond to biosecurity issues affecting Western Australian agriculture. Phase one of this project began in 2014 and it is anticipated that the final phase will close in 2023.

 

Project summary

The Boosting Biosecurity Defences program is funded by the State Government’s Royalties for Regions program, as part of the Seizing the Opportunity in Agriculture initiative. The program is supported by leveraged funds from Horticulture Australia Limited, Carnarvon Growers Association, the Council of Graingrower Organisations, State NRM, as well as DPIRD in-kind.

The program is improving the management of biosecurity risks in WA by:

  • enhancing surveillance
  • boosting response and recovery systems
  • supporting the community to address biosecurity threats.

The wide-ranging program addresses early detection of declared pests and diseases, preparedness to respond to incursions of significant pests and diseases, awareness and compliance with new legislation, community engagement and the adoption of new technology.

These activities will protect the State’s enviable biosecurity reputation, which is crucial to securing access to valuable export markets. 

This project will also demonstrate the State Government’s commitment to complying with the conditions of the Intergovernmental Agreement on Biosecurity 2012.

Program aims

The program aims to achieve the following outcomes:

  • Increased producer and community surveillance for significant agricultural pests and diseases to reduce the time taken to detect an incursion, and to validate claims of Area Freedom. See projects Grain Industry Surveillance, Grape Industry Surveillance
  • Significantly increased capacity in government, industry and the community to effectively respond and recover from incursions of emergency pests and diseases. See projects WA Biosecurity Strategy, Capacity to respond & recover from serious incidents and Rapid detection of emergency animal diseases.
  • Increased awareness of and compliance with the new regulations under the Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act 2007 (BAM Act) by livestock owners.
  • More effective management of regionally significant declared pests through the establishment of five new, self-governing and self-reliant regional groups (Recognised Biosecurity Groups under the BAM Act), and the re-invigoration of five existing Recognised Biosecurity Groups. See project Transforming regional biosecurity response.
  • Increased knowledge of the effectiveness of new technology to manage the pest Medfly, through piloting the technology in Carnarvon in partnership with the local horticultural industry and community. See project Piloting new techniques for control of fruit fly.
  • Increased knowledge of the costs, benefits and impacts of a suite of control measures on wild dog predation on livestock production, which may be applied to other regions. See project Evaluation of wild dog control.
  • Increased knowledge and innovative solutions to better manage significant pests and diseases through an agricultural biosecurity research and development Fund. See project Research and development fund.

 

Contact information

Rosalie McCauley
+61 (0)8 9368 3787
Anna Micha
+61 (0)8 9368 3346
Page last updated: Friday, 12 July 2019 - 12:03pm