Tackling the complacent, the resistant, and the disengaged: fostering stronger biosecurity engagement and social licence to manage biosecurity risks

The aim of this project is to understand and address biosecurity complacency and disengagement from industry and community; develop best biosecurity practices and new tools to support sustained behavioural changes for industries affected by complacency; and develop better frameworks/approaches for fostering and maintaining social licence to operate for a broad range of biosecurity initiatives. 

Biosecurity is a collective effort requiring ongoing commitment from all stakeholders to maintain vigilance and readiness against potential threats. However, complacency and social licence to operate issues undermine shared responsibility and hinder timely, coordinated responses in the face of biosecurity risks, and have been identified by GIA partners as a priority area for research.  

This multi-year project takes a three-stage approach to:

1) investigate the underlying drivers of complacency in biosecurity practices across primary sectors and barriers for social licence to operate from communities of interest through 3 case studies;

2) co-develop and test interventions with stakeholders to address particular complacent behaviours and/or social licence to operate issues identified in phase 1; and

3) facilitate the adoption and implementation of interventions and tools developed in phase 2 with broader stakeholders across the primary industries and foster stronger social licence to operate in the community.  

The three case studies have been selected to ensure insights are not only applicable to each case but also complementary to offer a comprehensive understanding that is relevant to broader sectors beyond the specific case study contexts.  The first case study will investigate the implementation of on-orchard biosecurity plans, using the Pathway Management Plan in the kiwifruit sector as a research context; the second case study focuses on the incursion cycle and readiness planning of a specific biosecurity threat, i.e., Lepidoptera, which can affect multiple sectors across forestry, agriculture, and horticulture; the third case study will use the Waka-Taurua framework to provide in-depth insights into the biosecurity system from Te Ao Māori and western knowledge systems in the honey and pollination services industry. 

Contact Project Leader Ivy Gan: [email protected]