Strengthen partnerships / Preparedness and planning
Preparedness and planning
Limit risk to Australia’s plant life through risk mitigation, risk assessment, contingency planning and biosecurity planning activities
The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), and standards under Commonwealth and state legislation provide several strategies that can be adopted to help protect and minimise the risks of exotic and emergency pests. Such risk mitigation practices are the responsibility of governments, industry and the community.
The aim of risk assessment is to clearly identify and classify biosecurity risks and provide data to help evaluate the treatment of these risks.
Risk assessment considers:
- the source of risk
- their consequences
- the likelihood that those consequences will occur.
Factors that affect the consequences and their likelihood of occurrence may be identified and addressed via risk mitigation strategies.
Contingency plans help our Members to plan for emergency plant pest incursions, assists scientists and regulators to develop response plans and provides technical advise during an incursion. Each plan consists of three sections:
- Section 1 identifies the general roles, responsibilities, skills and knowledge requirements of technical experts during a response.
- Section 2 considers the impact of different methods of pest dispersal on incursion management.
- Section 3 presents technical checklists for use by experts when planning diagnosis, impact assessment, selection of emergency control treatments, surveys, quarantine and movement controls, eradication and stand down.
Visit our Resource Centre to view the contingency plans we’ve developed for a range of plant pests and diseases.
Biosecurity plans (BP) set out an agreed range of activities to mitigate risks from exotic plant pests to particular industries or the environment. To develop a successful BP a collaborative approach is required to identify the greatest biosecurity threats to Australia’s plant industries. Through this process risk mitigation activities are identified to improve biosecurity practices and preparedness.
In addition to BPs, PHA also develops Biosecurity Manuals (BM) which are designed for on-farm application and outlines the principles and procedures that can be used to minimise the risk of introducing or spreading pests and diseases.
Visit our Resource Centre to view the BPs and BMs we’ve developed for a variety of plant industries or contact us to discuss your biosecurity preparedness and planning needs.
The National Plant Biosecurity Preparedness Strategy 2021-2031 and National Plant Biosecurity Preparedness Strategy Implementation Plan provides a framework for the capabilities required to prepare for and manage plant biosecurity risks.