AusIndo BIOCOM Workshop in Manado
AusIndo BIOCOM Workshop in Manado
Manado 24-27 January 2010
Background
In 2006 the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity (CRC NPB) developed a project titled “Development of community-based models for biosecurity awareness and management” as a collaborative program between various Australian and East Indonesian agencies. The project focused on the essential role of communities in the identification and management of incursions and sought opportunities to work with communities in both northern Australia and Eastern Indonesia to develop strategies to minimise exotic plant pest incursions.
In early 2008, building on various achievements[1], the research captured new collaborative interest and enlarged the scope of work. The initial CRC NPB project was therefore expanded under the title of the Australia-Indonesia Plant Biosecurity and Community Management partnership (AusIndoBIOCOM).
The AusIndoBIOCOM structure recognised both the ongoing key sponsorship role of the CRC NPB and the contribution of BaKTI and its affiliated networks in providing project facilitation and access to expert networks while expanding the base of universities and staff contributing to the project outcome. BaKTI has also projected AusIndoBIOCOM’s profile as a key element of JiKTI, the Eastern Indonesia Researchers Network.
The Re-bid
In 2009, the CRC NPB announced its intention to submit for an extension of funding, referred to as the ‘Re-bid’. If successful, this would extend the life of the CRC by another 7 years from 2012 and aid significantly in further embedding CRC research outcomes into the policy, governance, institutional and academic infrastructure of Indonesia and Australia.
The issues
For the Australian component of the social science Re-bid, the main issues relate to Indigenous land management across Northern Australia.
For Indonesia, particularly Eastern Indonesia with its close proximity to Australia’s northern borders and population of around 70 million people, the issues of plant biosecurity take on a slightly different form. One of the critical gaps in securing a food base through Eastern Indonesia is the absence of a common infrastructure that institutionalizes food security processes thereby managing production and trade threats in ways that are immediately useful to government and business.
A significant component of this infrastructure lies in the development of embedding new strategies that will increase community and landholder capacity to recognise, anticipate and manage production threats that bear directly on food security and the capacity to trade in global markets. Research through to policy and industry advice is critical for such strategies to be developed.
To answer the present challenges associated with biosecurity and border issues, AusIndoBIOCOM now consists of the CRC NPB itself, Bursa Pengetahuan Kawasan Timur Indonesia – BaKTI, Universitas Mahasaraswati, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Universitas Nusa Cendana, The Pacific Institute for Sustainable Development and Charles Darwin University. The group considers it important to develop further affiliations with other partners that would create a chain of organisations able to take forward findings and recommendations of the research network, focussing primarily on answering challenges in securing biosecurity and food security. Such an effort is as much about making the best use of business and community knowledge and capacity that can be brought together, as it is about developing new plant varieties. This chain of organisations would play a role in assisting plant industries to become resilient in the face of change through the development of community management infrastructure, essential to a long term and viable future for food businesses, which in turn would support further research and development.
In Australia, the Cooperative Research Centres, of which the CRC NPB is one of 48, operate on a 7 year funding cycle. Towards the end of their cycle, CRC’s are allowed to apply for a new round of funding for the next 7 years of operation. This process is called a ‘re-bid’. The CRC NPB has been operating for 5 years and is now developing its re-bid for funding which, if successful, would begin in 2012 and last for another 7 years. The CRC’s website is at http://www.crcplantbiosecurity.com.au/ and the Chief Executive Officer of the CRC, Dr Simon McKirdy, has a personal blog about the re-bid at http://www.talkingplantbiosecurity.com/.
Professor John Lovett is a very significant national and international figure in biosecurity, and he is the Chairman of the CRC Board of Directors. His profile is at http://www.crcplantbiosecurity.com.au/about-us/board/john-lovett. Professor Lovett has elected to attend the workshop in Manado personally, a sign of the CRC’s support and commitment to our project and its future in the social science component of the CRC’s overall re-bid program.
The workshop
- The focus of the workshop is on developing the social science component of the Re-bid for the CRC NPB, particularly the extension of the current research program described above in terms of ‘Community Management of Biosecurity’
- In order to ensure a strong focus and active and participatory environment for the 2 days of the workshop, it has been decided to limit the numbers of working participants to approximately 15 persons
- The outcomes of the workshop are expected to feed directly into the CRC NPB’s re-bid processes
Planning Forum Outcomes
- An overview research program for the CRCNPB Rebid for 2012-2020
- Preliminary validation by stakeholders of the draft research program
- Possible consolidated and expanded research partners
[1] The most significant current academic achievement is the new book authored by the CRC project team: Managing Biosecurity across Borders, published by Springer International publishers (in press).
