This book works towards a strategy for managing plant biosecurity in complex contexts. Managing the risks that pests and diseases pose to plants of all kinds is a highly complex issue, made more so in an era where climate change is facing us on a daily basis. Borders between nations, regions and culturally distinct and diverse peoples provide the background for the multi-disciplinary but integrated research presented in this book. The policy, power-plays and vested interests of people from all sectors and tiers of society coming to grips with basic issues of securing their food supplies and cultural heritage provide the foreground in a drama that affects the lives of millions. To achieve change in such a context requires a strong evidence-base from science and social science, and this book makes the first, and a comprehensive contribution to this end.
Regarding this book, Prof. Stephen Lansing of the University of Arizona said:
Just to the north of Australia lie the islands of Wallacea, one of the world’s great biogeographical frontier zones. In this fascinating book, a multi-disciplinary team of Australian and Indonesian researchers reflect on the challenge of managing invasive species, pathogens and other threats across borders both geographic and disciplinary. Frontier zones often bring forth exciting innovations, and the authors have risen to the challenge with broad and incisive analyses ranging from plant pathology to gender, community empowerment and cross-cultural understanding. The whole is much greater than the sum of the parts, thanks to the commitment of the authors of case studies to engage in ongoing meta-analyses of the big questions that emerge at the borders of their disciplines.
One chapter in this book, Chapter 4, deals with HLB (CVPD) in West Timor, written by I Wayan Mudita, who for the last three years has intensively done field work in the region. The following is the title and abstract of Chapter 4:
Crossing the Community-Government Border: The Case of Citrus Biosecurity Management in West Timor, Indonesia
Huanglongbing (HLB) is currently threatening citrus biosecurity in West Timor, Indonesia, but the local governments retain their position that law has been enacted and efforts have been made in the best way possible to prevent incursions. In the case of research findings discussed in this chapter, local communities are in fact aware of threats posed by HLB and because the disease is graft transmissible, urge local governments to stop distributing grafted seedlings as part of planting area extension and intensified cultivation programme. However, local governments refuse, arguing that propagation of grafted seedlings by commercial nurseries makes inspection more manageable and the distribution programme will encourage growers to plant disease-free seedlings. In fact, the local governments lack the capability to strictly enforce the supervision and the ability in ‘listening’ to community voices. These prevent the local governments from being able to cope with citrus decline in the region regardless of years of efforts that have been made to extend planting areas and intensify citrus cultivation. The unwillingness of the local governments to communicate the problem with local communities has create an unseen social border that prevents local communities from being able to access the necessary information and from using their local knowledge to effectively deal with the incursion. To benefit the local communities, an alternative approach to citrus biosecurity management is discussed. The approach requires the local governments to acknowledge the presence of the disease and to adopt a policy that encourages all stakeholders, including local universities and the local office of the central quarantine agency, to participate in an effort to develop a management programme that is not only scientifically sound but also socially acceptable.
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