List of Naturalised Plants of National Significance and Their Legal Status
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Invasive Plants of National Importance and their Legal Status by State and Territory A Report by Andreas Glanznig and Ouerdia Kessal WWF Australia June 2004 WWF is one of the world's largest and most experienced independent conservation organizations, with almost 5 million supporters and a global network active in more than 90 countries. WWF Australia's mission is to conserve biodiversity in Australia and the Oceania Region. With the help of more than 50,000 supporters across Australia, we are currently working on 180 projects across the region, employing more than 80 people, and raising and investing around $10 million annually in conservation activities. For more information, contact: WWF Australia GPO Box 528 Sydney, NSW, Australia Toll Free: 1800 032 551 Fax: 02-9281-1060 www.wwf.org.au [email protected] This report was prepared by Andreas Glanznig, Biodiversity Policy Manager, WWF Australia, and Ouerdia Kessal, Project Officer, WWF Australia. First published in 2004 by WWF Australia GPO Box 528 Sydney NSW 2001 © WWF Australia 2004. All Rights Reserved. ISBN 1 87594 170 3 WWF Australia Report For bibliographic purposes this paper should be cited as: Glanznig, A. and Kessal, O. 2004. Invasive Plants of National Importance and their Legal Status by State and Territory. WWF Australia: Sydney For copies of this paper or a full list of WWF Australia publications on a wide range of conservation issues, please contact us on [email protected] or call (02) 9281 5515 Acknowledgements The advice and input of officials from all State and Territory governments is gratefully acknowledged. 2 Invasive Plants of National Importance and their Legal Status by State and Territory – A WWF Australia Report Invasive Plants of National Importance and their Legal Status by State and Territory Executive Summary The importance of implementing a strong national approach to prevent and control invasive plant problems has long been recognised. A major challenge has been harmonising State and Territory laws to foster a national statutory approach. While a key aspiration of the National Weeds Strategy, adopted in 1997 by the Australian and all State and Territory Governments, there remains both a high degree of variability in the terms and categories used by different States and Territories to declare noxious plant species. There are also large differences in the quality of their respective laws. Most recently, the recognition by the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council of the need to develop a robust national framework to prevent and control invasive species again highlights the pressing need to develop an effective national statutory response. This report assesses the legal status to Invasive Plants of National Importance under respective State and Territory laws. Invasive Plants of National Importance are defined in this report to include plants on the Alert List of Environmental Weeds, those recommended for national eradication or containment in the report Weed Categories for Natural and Agricultural Ecosystem Management, those on the Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy target plant list, and Weeds of National Significance (WONS). However, to date only WONS species have been agreed by both the Australian Government and the States and Territories. To overcome the poor consistency between the classes and categories used by States and Territories, this study developed four general standard control classes to compare the legal status of IPNI by State and Territory. These were: 1.) prohibited from sale, 2.) prohibited from import, 3.) eradication required, 4.) control required. The key results are presented in the tables below. Alert List Eradication Eradication Northern Weeds of from Natural from Australia National Ecosystems Agricultural Quarantine Significance Target List Ecosystems Strategy Target (WONS) Target List Plant List Number of listed invasive 28 34 26 41 20 plants Number and % under no 15 (54%) 21 (62%) 7 (27%) 29 (71%) 0 (0%) State/Territory legal control Prohibited for Sale in 18.3 % 9.9 % 24.5 % 6.7 % 58.1 % State/Territory* Prohibited for Import into 20.5 % 12.5 % 29.3 % 9.8 % 53.1 % State/Territory* Subject to Eradication in 15.2 % 7.7 % 18.7 % 5.5 % 31.9 % State/Territory* Subject to Control in 4.9 % 2.9 % 8.7 % 0.9 % 32.5 % State/Territory* Note: * Average across all States and Territories Prohibited for Sale Prohibited for Import Subject to Subject to Control in in State/Territory* into State/Territory* Eradication in State/Territory* State/Territory* New South Wales 26.3% 22.3% 27.3% 7.8% Queensland 41.4% 41.4% 29.7% 9.8% South Australia 33.0% 19.6% 17.6% 8.1% Tasmania 24.5% 24.5% 1.5% 23.1% Victoria 20.6% 20.6% 19.6% 4.0% Western Australia 26.1% 55.7% 15.5% 1.5% Australian Capital 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 18.1% Territory Northern Territory 16.3% 16.3% 8.0% 6.0% Total 23.5% 25.1% 14.9% 9.8% Note: * Average across all classes of invasive plants of national importance Invasive Plants of National Importance and their Legal Status by State and Territory – A WWF Australia Report 3 The key findings are: • There is a high degree of variability in State and Territory legal controls to invasive plants. At a national level, preventative legal measures on Invasive Plants of National Importance are poor, covering only about a quarter of plant species on average across all IPNI classes. • On average, Queensland has the strongest preventative legal measures (controls on sale and importation) in place, though still only averaged 41.4% for preventative controls on IPNI species. • By far, the State or Territory with the weakest preventative legal controls in place is the Australian Capital Territory, which averaged 0.0% due to outdated legislation not including provisions to enable the prohibition on sale and importation of declared invasive plants. • The best performing State for controls on sale is Queensland (41.4%), followed by South Australia with an average of 33.0%, then followed by the cluster of New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania and further down, Victoria. • The best performing State for controls on importation is Western Australia, which prohibits the importation of over half (55.7%) of IPNI species into their State. The findings lead to the following conclusions: • Combined State and Territory government legislation forms a very poor statutory framework to prevent the sale of Invasive Plants of National Importance. • Most Invasive Plants of National Importance are not prohibited for sale, ranging from an average of 6.7% for NAQS target list species, 18.3% for Alert List species to 58.1% for WONS species and varieties. • The low result for WONS, despite a long standing agreement by all States and Territories to control the sale of these species, highlights that the States alone are unable to develop a coherent national legislative approach to Invasive Plants of National Importance in a timely manner, if at all. To date, only 2 States, Queensland and South Australia prohibit the sale of all 20 WONS. • In general, the States and Territories did not have any legal controls in place for a high proportion of priority invasive plants still able to be eradicated, which included over half of the Alert List and nearly two- thirds of the natural ecosystem target list. This exemplifies that State and Territory government weed control efforts are poorly coordinated with those of the Australian Government, and the need for States and Territories to endorse and agree to be involved in the any national effort to prevent and eradicate priority species. • For naturalised non-native plants recommended for national eradication or containment, there is a strong State/Territory bias toward agricultural over environmental invasive plants. This needs to be corrected by the States and Territories as a matter of urgency. • States and Territories with relatively weaker legislative controls need to amend or enact new legislation to strengthen the overall preventative response to invasive plants, in particular the Australian Capital Territory. • At a national level, far stronger legal controls are needed to prevent the sale and importation of Invasive Plants of National Importance. • The findings provide strong evidence of the need for national controls, under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999, to prohibit the sale of invasive plants of national importance. Without such regulations, efforts by the NRM Ministerial Council and Primary Industries Ministerial Council to establish “a national framework for preventative action” will be severely compromised. 4 Invasive Plants of National Importance and their Legal Status by State and Territory – A WWF Australia Report 1. Objectives The State and Territory governments declare noxious plants under a very wide range of control classes and categories. The aim of this analysis is to: 1. Define four general legal control categories for invasive plant species to enable direct comparison between States and Territories: prohibition from sale, prohibition from import, subject to eradication, and subject to control. 2. Ascertain the legal status in each State and Territory of Invasive Plants of National Importance against these four general categories. Invasive Plants of National Importance are defined in this report to include plants on the Alert List of Environmental Weeds, those recommended for national eradication or containment in the report Weed Categories for Natural and Agricultural Ecosystem Management, those on the Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy target plant list, and Weeds of National Significance. 2. Approach 2.1 Comparative table of State and Territory declared and control categories Respective State and Territory legislation and declaration processes were used to develop a comparative table to assess the differing legal control status for Invasive Plants of National Importance (IPNI) against four standard categories: I. Prohibited for Sale and/or trade by State / Territory II. Prohibited Import by State / Territory III.