NSW Bitou Bush Threat Abatement Plan - Department of ...

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Threat Abatement Plan - Invasion of native plant communities by Chrysanthemoides monilifera
Executive summary
Since the arrival of Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. rotundata (bitou bush) from South Africa
in 1908, this highly invasive shrub has spread to occupy approximately 80% of coastal New South
Wales. It now poses the single greatest threat to NSW coastal ecosystems and coastal biodiversity,
especially along the north coast. If it continues to expand unabated, within a decade there will be
no area of the NSW coast unaffected. It forms dense infestations that smother sand dune, headland
and hind dune vegetation communities including coastal grasslands, heathlands, woodlands,
swamps/wetlands and forests.
Invasion of native plant communities by bitou bush and boneseed (C. monilifera) was listed as a
key threatening process under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (TSC Act) in
1999. In accordance with the TSC Act, the Department of Environment and Conservation has
finalised a Threat Abatement Plan (TAP) which proposes actions to reduce the impacts of
C. monilifera on biodiversity, particularly threatened species, populations and ecological
communities. This document is hereafter referred to as the Bitou TAP.
To meet the requirements of a TAP, control of C. monilifera must be prioritised to target the
species, populations and ecological communities at greatest risk and where C. monilifera control
programs are likely to have the most significant outcome for such threatened biodiversity. While
this TAP establishes a strategic approach to deliver statewide conservation benefits, other
C. monilifera management programs will occur independently of this TAP, for example, at high
visitation areas within national parks, or where small isolated patches can be easily treated before
they become problematic.
Nationally, C. monilifera poses a direct threat to at least 30 threatened plant species and one
ecological community listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act
1999 (EPBC Act). Within New South Wales, it poses a direct threat to at least 55 threatened plant
species, three endangered plant populations and 15 endangered ecological communities (EEC)
listed under the TSC Act. It also threatens another 103 plant species and 11 ecological
communities not formally recognised as threatened (i.e. under threatened species legislation). In
addition, there are potentially many other plant species and ecological communities that are under
threat for which limited information is available, particularly with respect to fauna.
The Bitou TAP has five underlying components, which aim to:
< develop a strategic framework for delivering control of C. monilifera to areas of high
conservation value (in terms of biodiversity at greatest risk from invasion) independent
of land tenure
< monitor the effectiveness of control programs in terms of the recovery of the
biodiversity at risk
< develop and promote best practice management
< foster community education, involvement and awareness
< identify and fill knowledge gaps where possible.
The Bitou TAP provides a strategy for C. monilifera control that will have positive outcomes for
the conservation of native plant species and ecological communities in New South Wales. The
Bitou TAP determines priority plant species, populations and ecological communities that are at
risk and identifies locations of such biodiversity to determine priority sites for the control of