The Invasive Species Council has welcomed the release of a new national threat abatement plan for 5 of northern Australia’s worst invasive grasses, but warned the strategy will fail without urgent investment, stronger regulation and national coordination.
The updated federal plan identifies gamba grass, para grass, olive hymenachne, mission grass and annual mission grass as major threats to wildlife, wetlands, Indigenous cultural values and communities across northern Australia.
The grasses are known or suspected to threaten more than 60 nationally listed threatened species, as well as Ramsar wetlands, World Heritage sites and nationally significant landscapes. They are continuing to spread across northern Australia, transforming ecosystems, fuelling destructive fires and making landscapes less resilient to climate change.
Invasive Species Council Advocacy Director Reece Pianta said the plan correctly identified the scale of the problem but governments must now back it with serious action.
‘These grasses are among the most destructive environmental weeds in Australia, yet they still don’t receive the attention or investment they deserve.
‘Once these grasses take hold, they can completely transform landscapes – wetlands become choked with dense grass, native plants disappear, wildlife habitat is lost and fire behaviour changes dramatically.
‘Invasive grasses are creating a slow-motion environmental disaster across northern Australia. The longer governments wait, the more expensive and difficult this problem becomes to solve.
‘These grasses are transforming some of Australia’s most important natural areas, including wetlands, floodplains and savanna woodlands that support threatened species found nowhere else on Earth.
‘They are also damaging Country, restricting access to culturally important places and species, and making traditional land management more difficult.
‘Healthy Country and healthy wildlife go hand in hand and protecting both must be at the centre of any long-term response.
‘We know what needs to be done – the science is clear, the priorities are identified and the roadmap is now in place.
‘What has been missing is the investment, coordination and political commitment needed to tackle the problem at the scale required.
‘We applaud the NT government and NSW government for their leadership in signing onto this plan. It’s disappointing important jurisdictions like Queensland and Western Australia have failed to join in this coordinated action.
‘If governments are serious about protecting northern Australia’s wildlife, wetlands and cultural heritage, they need to treat invasive grasses as the national environmental threat they are.’
The Invasive Species Council said governments should now commit to fully funding implementation of the plan and adopt stronger measures to prevent further spread. The Council is calling for:
- Long-term federal, state and territory funding to fully implement the threat abatement plan.
- National and state invasive grass coordinators to drive implementation and improve collaboration across jurisdictions.
- Regional invasive grass management strategies focused on protecting biodiversity and cultural values.
- Consistent regulations to prevent the cultivation, sale, supply and spread of these invasive grasses.
- A phase-out of their use for fodder production and transport.
- Stronger biosecurity measures to prevent the importation of new varieties and hybrids.
- Increased investment in research, monitoring and biological control technologies.
Background:
- The plan covers gamba grass, para grass, olive hymenachne, mission grass and annual mission grass.
- The grasses are recognised as a nationally listed Key Threatening Process under federal environmental law.
- They threaten at least 64 nationally listed threatened species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, insects and plants.
- They also threaten nationally significant wetlands, World Heritage sites and Indigenous cultural values.
- The grasses can produce biomass between two and thirty times greater than the native vegetation they replace.
- Gamba grass fires have been estimated to cost 26 times more to manage than equivalent fires in native grasslands.
- The threat abatement plan identifies improved coordination, prevention of further spread, increased monitoring and stronger management as national priorities.
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