Impact to Biosecurity with Reduced Access to Public Lands

This project will deliver a risk assessment on honey bee biosecurity on public lands including the development of an understanding of when risks are incurred. It will detail information on when/what times of the year beekeepers use public lands and what is the biosecurity risk at these different times. It will include information on the increase in risk when public lands are used before or after pollination events. Critically, the project will develop an understanding of whether there has been a change in the use of public lands by beekeepers – has there been a contraction in beekeeper use of public lands or has the overall number of beekeepers on remaining, unburnt areas increased. Finally, it will report on whether there been an increase in disease and pests reporting by beekeepers on public lands since the 2019/20 bushfires.

The review will be used to generate a final report that could be used by state and federal beekeeping bodies to drive policy change around honey bee biosecurity practices on public lands.