Biosecurity Risks

Biosecurity is important for protecting the economy, environment and communities from the negative impacts associated with pests, diseases, weeds and invasive species. The combined cost of invasive species across Australia exceeds $13.5 billion annually in terms of management, control and economic losses. Of this, the costs associated with managing weeds are around $1.8 billion annually, and the economic losses associated with pest animals are around $170 million.

The biosecurity risks selected were based on their presence in NSW, except for the oriental fruit fly (a test case for an exotic species) and serpentine leaf miner (included after an incursion led to it becoming established in NSW). The selection represents a range of pests and diseases deemed to be of considerable concern to the relevant terrestrial commodities in NSW. This work could be expanded with further resourcing to cover other endemic risks to primary industries, including marine pests and other exotic species not yet detected in NSW or Australia.

Climate Vulnerability Assessments

For Biosecurity Risks, the following were selected:

Crop diseases

Horticultural pests

Invasive weeds

Livestock parasites

* not currently in NSW

Visit each page for more information about the biosecurity risk and to view its factsheet and results report.

Results

The Climate Vulnerability Assessment assessed the historical and future climate suitability for each commodity across NSW. These assessments considered changes in climate suitability between the historical (1981-2010) and future projection (2036-2065) periods, reported separately for two emissions scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5).

Maps of historical and future climate suitability for biosecurity risks were produced. These help us to identify where in NSW biosecurity risks are likely to thrive or else be limited by future climatic conditions. The maps are provided in the results reports for each commodity, and these reports also provide an interpretation of the drivers behind changes in climate suitability.

Care should be taken when interpreting these results. The Climate Vulnerability Assessment is intended to highlight potential changes in future climate suitability at the industry and regional levels. It is not designed to be interpreted at the scale of individual holdings.

For more information on assumptions and exclusions for individual models, please refer to the results reports. For a detailed description of the methodology, modelling approach and data used in the Climate Vulnerability Assessment, please refer to the methodology summary page.

Data release

The data underpinning each assessment is available online through the NSW Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data (SEED) portal, via the Climate Vulnerability Assessment page.