WSP throws weight behind Biosecurity Week

WSP is getting right behind Biosecurity Week with a staff campaign aimed at raising awareness of limiting the spread of biosecurity risks when out and about in the field.

From freshwater ecologists surveying and relocating fish, to water engineers assessing waterways and primary industries experts visiting farms, site visits are a major part of the work of many of WSP’s 2,000 staff.

WSP Christchurch-based senior ecologist Mark Hansen says WSP already has well established processes around cleaning and disinfecting of vehicles and footwear to prevent the potential spread of key unwanted organisms on the national scale. The plan is to introduce even more internal staff guidance, especially regionally.

The theme for this year’s Biosecurity Week is ‘Changing Landscapes’. It’s an apt tagline, says Mark.

“Many of our country’s most prized landscapes are being seriously changed by wilding pine spread, kauri dieback, myrtle rust and didymo, while recent incursions of Mycoplasma bovis have caused economic impacts. Pests and diseases can and should be managed by recreational users and professionals alike, visiting the environments where they’re present.”

“It’s important to remain vigilant and pay close attention to biosecurity hygiene. And not just in rural or remote places. Unwanted organisms can exist in the middle of urban areas. Invasive plant pathogens like myrtle rust, for example, can hitchhike on people’s clothing to colonise new areas.”

Figures from the Ministry for the Environment show 76 percent of freshwater fish in Aotearoa, 84 percent of reptiles and 46 percent of vascular plants are currently threatened with or at risk of extinction. Pest weeds and predators have been a significant factor in their decline.

Wilding pines cover approximately 1.8 million hectares of the country. The Ministry for Primary Industries estimates over 25 percent of Aotearoa could be covered within three decades unless control continues.

Mark says addressing biosecurity risks is an important step in helping stop the continued changing landscape of our biodiversity crisis.

“We have unique biodiversity developed through 80 million years of isolation. A major part of our ability to defend our precious taonga species and biodiversity depends on keeping new threats out and limiting the spread of those already here. That’s why we’re supporting Biosecurity Week and is why you should too.”

For more information about Biosecurity Week, visit the New Zealand Biosecurity Institute website.