Invasive species cost the Australian economy billions of dollars each year in management and losses in agricultural productivity, food security, biodiversity and human health. In 2011-2012 the combined estimated cost (economic losses and control) of invasive species in Australia was $13.6 billion dollars (Hoffman and Broadhurst 2016). Successful management relies not only on effective control of the pest species, but also critically on community support and land manager engagement. The latter is often the more challenging task.
Most pest management programs have generally relied on providing information about the risks of the pest species and the required management, with the hope and/or belief that this will foster supportive community attitudes and behaviour (McLeod et al., 2015). Even so, pest management rarely has a short term fix. Success requires ongoing and often coordinated action across properties and land managers over long periods of time.
The drivers of an individual’s behaviour are complex and research indicates that programs that rely solely on education are often ineffectual in achieving the long term behaviour change. Such programs fail to understand what prevents and motivates people to undertake the desired behaviour/s and thus plan the most appropriate strategies (McLeod et al., 2015).
The program to eradicate introduced rats and mice on Lord Howe Island showed for example, that raising community awareness and relying on pure science, logic and reason was ineffective in gaining community support for the project. A whole range of community engagement strategies were instead required to build community trust and to address the community concerns and needs in order to bring them on board (McLeod et al. (2015) analysed key components of a range of behaviour change theories relevant to the management of invasive species. She demonstrated how one model, the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) (Michie et al., 2011) integrates the key drivers of and barriers to behaviour change and matches intervention strategies to the primary causes of behaviour.
The BCW offers a framework to understand the processes that commonly underlie problem behaviours and to build long term behaviour change based on 3 factors - building a person’s capability, opportunity and motivation to engage in a particular behaviour.
Capability — does the person have the relevant knowledge, skills and physical and psychological capacity to undertake the behaviour? For example, do they have the necessary finances, equipment, physical ability and risk assessment and problem-solving skills to install for example, an exclusion fence or successfully trap an invasive species?
Opportunity — does the external environment support or enable the desired behaviour? For example, are control technologies (e.g. baits), services and personnel readily available to assist and remind; are appropriate regulations in place; are key sections of the community on board and participating (e.g. trapping)?
Motivation — are people sufficiently motivated to take action? For example, do they have the right combination of values, attitudes and beliefs? Are the right incentives in place? If a person is not directly impacted, are they aware of, or have they seen the severity of impacts for other land owners (e.g. on livestock)?
When planning a community engagement program to manage an invasive species it is critical to first undertake community consultation to understand the target audience and determine what prevents and encourages different groups in the community to undertake the desired behaviour/s. The BCW can then help identify appropriate strategies according to the key drivers of the behaviour. Interventions include education, persuasion, incentives, training, rules and regulations, environmental restructuring, modeling, coercion and enablement (Michie et al., 2011). It is important to keep in mind that different strategies will likely be required for different target groups and evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions is also critical. Wherever possible, robust evaluation methodologies should be used to determine if and why interventions are effective.
The Invasive Animals CRC Triggers for Effective Action Project is developing, implementing and evaluating communications strategies for the uptake of best practices for the control of invasive animals visit http://www.invasiveanimals.com/ research/phase2/community-engagement/ triggers-for-effective-action/
Kaylene Allan
Cat Management Officer
Kingborough Council
References
Hoffmann, B.D., and Broadhurst, L.M. 2016. The economic cost of managing invasive species in Australia. NeoBiota 31: 1–18. doi: 10.3897/ neobiota.31.6960
McLeod, L.J., et al 2015. Applying behavioural theories to invasive animal management: Towards an integrated framework. JENVMAN (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.06.048
Michie, S., et al 2011. The behaviour change wheel: a new method for characterising and designing behaviour change interventions. Implement. Sci. 6, 1e11.