Australian State of the Environment Report 2021

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) legislates a review of the state of the Australian environment every 5 years. Australia state of the environment 2021 (SoE 2021) assesses the changing condition of our natural environment across 12 themes: air quality, Antarctica, biodiversity, climate, coasts, extreme events, heritage, Indigenous, inland water, land, marine and urban.

The SoE is designed to:

– help shape strategy, policy and action
– influence behaviours of individuals, communities and businesses
– assist in assessing our actions as stewards of the Australian environment.

The 2021 report combines scientific, traditional and local knowledge to provide a rigorous, peer‑reviewed assessment of every aspect of the environment.

The Commonwealth of Australia owns the copyright in all material produced by the Department. Australia State of the Environment 2021 is licenced by the Commonwealth of Australia for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence with the exception of the Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth of Australia, and the logo of the agency responsible for publishing the report and some content supplied by third parties. For licence conditions see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The state of weeds data collection in Australia

National coordination of weeds data is a priority for all levels of government in Australia and is established in national policy documents such as the Australian Weeds Strategy (AWS) 2017–2027, the Intergovernmental Agreement on Biosecurity (IGAB), and the national strategies for Weeds of National Significance (WoNS). Collaboration through data sharing can assist weed managers to more effectively allocate resources, assess effectiveness of investments, and improve management outcomes.
The objective of the national weeds data collection survey was to understand the status of weeds data collection and sharing between stakeholders, and identify opportunities for data coordination at a national level.
Authors: Katherina Ng, Bo Raphael, Luke Maloney, Jessica Evans and Sandra Parsons. Research by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences. Research report 21.05 April 2021

Biological control of weeds: A practitioner’s guide to south-east Australia

This manual provides key steps for undertaking weed biocontrol for more than 50 weeds species in south-east Australia. It provides information on:
– weeds and their background
– how to identify biocontrol agents (the weed’s natural enemies) and their potential impact on the weed
– how to source biocontrol agents
– how to redistribute these agents
– how to monitor establishment and dispersal of such agents.