Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
schools, community groups, and local and state governments. Activities include
weed clean-up eff orts, fi eld days and demonstrations, seminars, and displays to
assist with weed identifi cation and competitions. Weedbusters started in 1994
as Queensland Weed Awareness Week. In 1995 and 1996 it became Weedbuster
Day, with thousands of people participating in events throughout the State.
New South Wales also held Weed Awareness Weeks in 1986, 1990, and 1996.
In 1997, Weedbuster Week was launched nationally, with encouragement and
support from the Australian government, all State and Territory Governments
and the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Australian Weed Management.
h e Weedbusters programme has now spread to New Zealand and South Africa,
and other countries have expressed interest in running their own Weedbuster
programmes.
Another example of a community-led initiative is the
Mimosa pigra
(mimosa)
management programme on Aboriginal lands in the Northern Territory, Australia.
h is programme is facilitated by the Caring for Country Unit (
http://www.nlc.
org.au/html/care_menu.html)
which was established in 1995 by the Northern
Territory Land Council, the principal representative body for aboriginal people in
the northern portion of the Northern Territory. h e purpose of the unit is to assist
aboriginal communities to manage environmental issues such as feral animals and
weeds through consultation, participatory planning, building capacity, sourcing
of funding, and facilitating training and partnerships. Mimosa, a highly invasive
weed, was identifi ed by indigenous communities as a land management priority.
h is resulted in the development of community-based ranger programmes to con-
trol infestations of mimosa on riverine fl oodplains. How these programmes are
implemented is determined by Aboriginal people through intensive consultation
and coordination. Over time, these programmes have broadened their activities
to address a variety of natural resource management activities including manage-
ment of fi re, feral animals, and other weeds (Ashley
et al
. 2002; Jackson
et al
. 2005;
Caring for Country website).
7.2.3.3 Public support
National and local governments and NGOs have a continuing central role to
play in driving and funding many IAS management initiatives. In many devel-
oped countries there is a natural scepticism of government and government-led
initiatives (Petts and Leach, 2000). These challenges are exacerbated by a grow-
ing tendency in some cultures to challenge the supremacy of the scientifi c expert
community on which centrally-managed environment strategies are based. These
sentiments are based on the growing public desire for a more inclusive decision-
making process and the realisation that these are not purely technical decisions,
but involve signifi cant value judgements. As public expectations of the availability
of information and inclusivity increase, fuelled in part by the ever greater pene-
tration of modern technologies such as the Internet, so will the need to respond
to these concerns.
