Case Study: Victorian Blackberry Taskforce
The range of technical control options for blackberry management is well documented. However, blackberry remains prevalent across much of the landscape impacting on farm productivity and biodiversity.
This highlights a series of issues beyond mere technical solutions. The Victorian Blackberry Taskforce has been established to support the movement of blackberry management away from a technical, agency-based issue, to one which recognises the social and economic dimensions of blackberry control, with an emphasis on community.
The taskforce comprises community members and representatives from DPI, Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) and Parks Victoria. DPI contributes to the provision of an Executive Officer to support the taskforce’s implementation of its statewide Victorian Blackberry Strategy 2008-2013.
The implementation of the strategy is overseen by the taskforce, with a strong focus on supporting the wider community to take responsibility for blackberry control through their community partnership support program.
The program is investing in community’s capacity to respond to widely established weeds, reducing the impacts of blackberry across 140,000 hectares of Victoria’s landscape.
While the taskforce is responsible for delivering the extension component of the strategy, DPI provides strategic enforcement of the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994.
The development and function of the taskforce has been, and continues to be, supported by DPI through the provision of advice on policy, research and technical aspects of blackberry management, and facilitating the development of community capacity to manage blackberry.
Partnerships
DPI, DSE, and the Victorian Blackberry Taskforce; and community groups across rural Victoria.
