Risk Assessment for the New Zealand National Pest Plant Accord: Which
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Plant Protection Quarterly Vol.25(2) 2010 75 by the Steering Group for inclusion on the NPPA list. Risk assessment for the New Zealand National Pest The Steering Group is made up of rep- resentatives from MAF Biosecurity New Plant Accord: which species should be banned from Zealand, the Department of Conserva- tion, Regional Councils and the Nursery sale? and Garden Industry Association. This group determines the fi nal list of NPPA A B M.J. Newfi eld and P.D. Champion plants based on recommendations of the A Biosecurity New Zealand, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, PO Box TAG and factors related to costs of imple- 2526, Wellington, New Zealand. menting the NPPA (for example the value B National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), PO Box of that plant to the horticultural trade or 11-115, Hamilton, New Zealand. other groups). The TAG assessment process Criteria for the TAG There are hundreds of invasive or poten- Summary tially invasive plants in New Zealand, but The National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA) contained approximately 110 species that it is neither desirable nor feasible to in- is an approach used in New Zealand to were banned from sale (MAF 2000). This clude every one on the Accord list. The manage the problem of invasive plants list was managed through local govern- original NPPA list contained 92 taxa, and that are in the horticultural trade. It is a ment and there was some regional varia- an additional 108 taxa were nominated by cooperative agreement between central tion in the species included. members of the Consultative List. Typi- government agencies, local government Since 2001, the New Zealand approach cally, species are nominated and assessed, agencies and the Nursery and Garden to the management of invasive plants in but in some cases subspecies, varieties Industry Association. Species included horticulture has been a cooperative agree- or cultivars may be assessed separately. in the Accord list are legally prohibited ment between central government, local Some of the nominations were for whole from sale, propagation and distribution government and industry. The agreement genera, but in these cases individual spe- under provision of the Biosecurity Act is known as the National Pest Plant Ac- cies within the genus were assessed. The 1993. There are hundreds of invasive or cord (NPPA). The main focus of the NPPA TAG therefore had 200 taxa to assess and potentially invasive plants in New Zea- is education and awareness, but plants in- prioritize, within a limited timeframe and land, but it is neither desirable nor fea- cluded on the NPPA list are also prohib- budget. sible to include every invasive plant on ited from sale, propagation and distribu- The assessment criteria for the TAG are the Accord list. tion throughout New Zealand under the outlined in Champion (2005). There are A robust and transparent weed risk as- Biosecurity Act (1993). three main factors that determine whether sessment process is required to support The purpose of NPPA is to prevent sale, a particular taxon will be included on the decision-making and prioritization for propagation and distribution of invasive NPPA: which taxa to include on the Accord list. plants in the horticultural trade, includ- • The impact or potential impact of the Criteria for inclusion in the Accord list ing the less formal part of the trade such plant. were developed and assessments were as markets and fairs. Inclusion of a taxon • The effectiveness of the NPPA as a conducted by members of a Technical on the NPPA list does not impose obliga- management tool for that taxon. Advisory Group (TAG). Approximately tions on landholders or agencies to man- • The cost of including that taxon on the 200 taxa were assessed and prioritized by age that taxon; this type of management NPPA list (whether or not that taxon is the TAG in 2005. No current weed risk is addressed through Regional Pest Man- valued for various purposes and what assessment tool was available to deter- agement Strategies administered by Re- the cost would be to the horticultural mine taxa for the NPPA list, although gional Councils or other local government trade or other groups if it was included some existing systems were used to pro- agencies who have responsibility for pest on the NPPA list). vide additional information. The crite- management. It is the role of the TAG to assess the fi rst ria and process used are described, and two factors (the third being the role of the future directions and improvements are The NPPA process Steering Group). The TAG process is out- discussed. The selection of taxa for the 2006 review lined here. Keywords: Invasive plants, horticul- of the NPPA list was managed through The fi rst stage of the assessment is effec- ture, weed risk assessment. three key groups, the Consultative List, tively a weed risk assessment, considering the Technical Advisory Group and the factors such as invasiveness in New Zea- Introduction Steering Group. land and overseas, presence of undesir- The use of invasive plants in horticulture The Consultative List includes staff of able traits, ability to spread, competitive is a well-recognized and often contentious central and local government agencies, ability, impact on values (such as primary issue (see for example Reichard and White members of the horticultural industry and production or the function of natural eco- 2001). New Zealand has taken a number of the wider public. Member of this group systems) and resistance to management. approaches to limiting the spread of inva- can nominate potential NPPA plants and This fi rst stage addresses the criteria un- sive plants through horticulture. The fi rst comment on the assessments that have der the Biosecurity Act (1993) for deter- was in 1983 when the sale of six aquari- been done on those taxa before a fi nal de- mination of an Unwanted Organism1, um species was banned under the Nox- cision is made. ious Plants Act (1978) (Champion 2005). The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) 1 Unwanted Organism means any organ- In 1993 a voluntary agreement called the is made up of scientists with a range of ism that a Chief Technical Offi cer believes Forest Friendly Award scheme included expertise relevant to assessing taxa for in- is capable or potentially capable of causing 23–28 terrestrial species (Craw 1994). The clusion on the NPPA list. This group rec- unwanted harm to any natural or physical next approach used was the National Sur- ommends which of the taxa nominated by resource or human health (Biosecurity Act veillance Pest Plant List in 1996, which the Consultative List should be considered 1993). 76 Plant Protection Quarterly Vol.25(2) 2010 because if it doesn’t meet these criteria, inclusion on the NPPA list because of their expected that all the current NPPA taxa there is no legal basis for including it on potential as weeds. will need to be reassessed. the NPPA list. Individual TAG members assigned Two particular areas have been identi- If a taxon is considered to have a sub- their allocated taxa to one (or occasionally fi ed for improvement for the next round of stantial impact as a weed in New Zealand, more) of six categories based on the crite- the NPPA. The fi rst is how to better incor- or it is considered likely to have a sub- ria in Champion (2005) (see Table 1). The porate an assessment of current and po- stantial impact in the future, then the sec- completed assessments were then sent to tential distribution into the NPPA assess- ond question is whether the NPPA is the all other TAG members for comment. ment process. While there are tools and correct tool for managing that taxon. This Following the initial assessment and approaches for assessing potential distri- factor considers appeal as a cultivated comments, the TAG met to discuss taxa bution (for example CLIMEX, Sutherst plant, the difference between current and classifi ed as uncertain and those where et al. 2007), the time and resources were potential distribution in New Zealand, the opinions differed. Following the discus- not available to use these tools within the current control approaches and the man- sions, taxa were allocated to fi ve catego- NPPA assessment process. For some taxa agement status. ries (see Table 2). These were the TAG’s the available information was so limited recommendations to the Steering Group. that even if the time and resources were Available weed risk assessment systems available, it may have been diffi cult to fi nd For decision makers, a system that gave a Final NPPA list the information required to use models score to enable prioritizing was desirable. The 2006 NPPA list contained 109 taxa at such as CLIMEX. The second area was as- There are a number of existing weed risk species level or below, and four genera. sessing taxa where there is some evidence assessment tools available in New Zea- In four cases, hybrids of NPPA taxa were that certain cultivars are less invasive than land and these were considered for use in also included, but hybrids of NPPA taxa the wild type of the species. Under the Bi- the NPPA assessment process. are normally not considered to be includ- osecurity Act (1993) all subspecies and cul- The weed risk assessment model of ed on the NPPA. Three more taxa were tivars are included when a species is listed Williams (1996) is based on the Australian added in 2007 and seven more in Septem- on the NPPA, unless specifi cally excluded. weed risk assessment model (Pheloung ber 2008. The delay in listing some taxa Apparently sterile cultivars are sometimes 1995).