Spatial prioritisation for management of gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus) invasions: accounting for social, economic and environmental values

The social, economic and environmental impacts of invasive plants are well recognised. However, the social and economic costs of managing and eradicating invasive plants are rarely accounted for in the spatial prioritisation of funding for weed management. Gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus Kunth.) is one of five species of tropical invasive grasses that have been listed as a Key Threatening Process (KTP) and it requires urgent strategic management. The aim of this project is to develop a spatially explicit prioritisation framework to identify optimal budget allocations to both eradication and control measures of gamba grass to minimise the costs (including management costs as well as loss of social, cultural and environmental assets) and likelihood of reinvasion. Our framework extends recent approaches to systematic prioritisation of weed management to account for spatially variable environmental, social and cultural assets that are threatened by gamba grass including: biodiversity, areas of conservation significance and cultural sites of significance such as aboriginal sacred sites.