Weed Risk Management System
Weed Risk Management System
The Northern Territory Weed Risk Management (WRM) System is being developed collaboratively by the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts; the Department of Primary Industries, Fisheries and Mines; Charles Darwin University and other stakeholder groups. Two workshops were hosted with stakeholders goups to review the current Australian models and decide on the model to be adapted for the NT. The model for the NT was developed by reviewing WRA systems currently in use throughout Australia and adopting relevant components of these (primarily the South Australian system), and modifying certain components to suit the conditions and needs of the NT (Background paper - pdf 26Kb). The NT WRA system also complies with the Australian Standard in weed risk management (HB 294:2006 National Post-Border Weed Risk Management Protocol).
Structure
The NT Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) model will be a question based assessment method, which involves answering up to 27 questions on the plant being assessed. The model will assess three major attributes of the candidate species which are invasiveness, potential impact and potential distribution. The answers are generally in one of two forms (1) 'yes', 'no' or 'don't know', or (2) 'low', 'medium', 'high', or 'don't know'. The WRA uses the responses to the questions to generate a numerical score. The score is used to determine an outcome for the species.
Further details on the model will be added as it becomes available.
