Biosecurity prioritisation

Conservation is grossly under-resourced, requiring managers to prioritise where, when, and how to spend limited funds. Although there is little doubt that prioritisation exercises can improve outcomes for nature, the numerous values that are inherent in a multi-actor landscape are rarely considered when implementing prioritisations for conservation problems – creating an impasse for effective resource allocation. In collaboration with Queensland University of Technology, Queensland Parks and Wildlife, and Biosecurity Queensland, the McMadLab is working on better understanding the challenges of pest prioritisation and management in complex multi-actor conservation landscapes like the Australian state of Queensland. Eve McDonald-Madden is the principal investigator of this Australian Research Council Linkage Project, Chris O’Bryan is the postdoctoral research fellow, and Nisa Abeysinghe is doing her PhD on the topic. This pest Linkage project will produce novel frameworks and tools to assist prioritisation exercises that draw on mathematical techniques grounded in game theory, accounting for values and objectives of multiple actors.