Altering weed management priorities to ensure conservation outcomes are achieved: lessons from the Bitou Bush Threat Abatement Plan

摘要

Weed management and plant conservation have traditionally been separate fields, despite acknowledgement that weeds are a major threat to biodiversity. The separation has allowed the assumption that weed control will automatically lead to positive conservation outcomes to persist. To join the two fields, conservation outcomes must be a part of weed management strategies in which weed control is tailored to meet identified objectives such as saving a specific native species. The Bitou Bush Threat Abatement Plan (Bitou TAP) merges weed management and plant conservation at a policy level. Has this led to changes in management objectives and on-ground control programmes? An assessment of some of the management programs at Bitou TAP priority sites highlighted a potential divergence between the policy and its implementation. Many sites had existing weed control programmes with aims different to that of the TAP, so implementation of the TAP at these sites also requires changing previously established priorities and/or pre-existing management mindsets based around the assumption outlined above. All weed control programmes have a degree of inertia, for both institutional and personnel reasons. This natural resistance to change must be considered when developing innovative programmes, because the policy can move too fast for the actual management to keep pace. Numerous tools have been provided to help align the priorities of all stakeholders involved in implementation of the Bitou TAP, including a TAP website, a range of public awareness and educational activities, site management plans, monitoring guidelines, an identification guide to native plants at risk, and the TAP itself. However, several barriers still pose a hurdle for implementing the plan across169 priority sites and 38 groups of stakeholders. Regardless, these processes have reduced the gap between policy and practice - a gap that should further reduce with time.