Project Leader
Professor Ian Falk, Indonesian Biosecurity Foundation
Status
Contracting
Background
This project focuses on plant biosecurity in Indonesia and Australia. Each of its four case studies examines different aspects of effective management of biosecurity so as to generate clear messages for end-users and decision-makers in both countries, aiming to inform a bilateral biosecurity action plan and associated activities. Each of the set out its implications for extension pathways. The Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) was ratified on 5 July 2020. From this time, Indonesia once more became a prime geopolitical focus for Australia, with announcements on defence and security for the ‘Indo-Pacific’. IA-CEPA’s success for Australia is dependent on successful trade, which in turn depends on strong and effective biosecurity measures between the two countries. The occurrence of the COVID-19 highlights that biosecurity (plant, human, animal) and related biodiversity has no borders, and a common approach and joint bilateral efforts in biosecurity are essential to success. IBF*, with its 13-year history of building bilateral biosecurity partnerships, is well-placed, to seek implementation of science-based approaches, vital strategies and encourage the development of effective governance structures to strengthen biosecurity that enable trade.
* Indonesian Biosecurity Foundation (IBF), a member of APBSF, and long-time bilateral partner
Objectives and Impact
- The purpose of the project is to boost the Indo-Pacific plant biosecurity capability through extending the impact of previous CRCPB, PBCRC, and APBSF projects spanning 2007 to the present and utilising the networks built during the BPBI and IBF development stages
- The objective is to analyse the COVID-19 response and identify key learnings to assist plant biosecurity to manage plant biosecurity in effective bilateral trade relationships in a COVID/Post COVID world;
- The impact of the proposal is to synthesise key learnings from COVID-19 to improve plant biosecurity management in bilateral trade activities, generating clear messages for end-users and decision-makers in both countries, so informing a biosecurity action plan and associated activities. Four case studies will set out its implications for extension pathways;
- The method is a quad-site, multi-method analysis of four different aspects of biosecurity management: (a) Java: Governance: (the case of a regional response), (b) Bali: Industry response (the case of tourism), (c) North Sulawesi: risk management (the case of managing zoonotic origins of biosecurity issues), (d) Eastern Indonesia: bilateral action plan to reduce the risk of further spread of banana blood disease;
- Outputs are (a) reports of 4 sites’ research, (b) vital strategies and considerations for bilateral trade success relevant to each case’s focus, such that it will inform bilateral biosecurity actions; (c) improved biosecurity strategies and systems in place to aid broader bilateral trade.
- The Impacts on biosecurity of the proposal are (a) Strengthening integrated bilateral biosecurity strategies during and after the pandemic; (b) Informing biosecurity risk-management procedures with real, up-to-date evidence from 4 sectors and regions; (c) Insights into the ways social, economic and cultural factors influence effective bilateral trade relations.