Better biosecurity risk management through collaborative planning and shared decision making

Abstract

Planning and decision making to manage plant biosecurity risks is inherently complex, often contentious, involves unknowns and uncertainty, and needs to be adaptable to rapidly changing situations. The aim of this project is to develop a collaborative planning and shared decision making framework that will result in better and faster decisions to respond more quickly to plant biosecurity risks, resulting in reduced impacts and costs, and more equitable and favourable outcomes for stakeholders and affected parties.
The key requirements for the collaborative planning and decision making framework will be developed based on the evaluation and adaptation of existing frameworks for (i) risk analysis, (ii) risk management, (iii) planning and decision making, (iv) stakeholder engagement, and (iv) risk governance. A number of case studies representative of different biosecurity activities will be analysed to inform the development of the framework. These case studies currently include the emergency response to the tropical race 4 strain of Panama disease affecting banana in north Queensland; comparing cost sharing arrangements for plant biosecurity; contingency planning; and evaluating the technical feasibility of eradicating plant pests. The collaborative planning and decision making framework will be scalable to different levels of strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning and decision-making in plant biosecurity; and applicable to a wide range of biosecurity issues, across planning, preparedness, prevention, response, recovery and ongoing management activities. End-users will be able to better manage plant biosecurity risks, with a logical and analytical planning and decision making process.