Western Australian Large Feral Herbivore Strategy 2020–2025.

The Western Australian Large Feral Herbivore (LFH) Strategy 2020–2025 has been developed by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) to provide guidance to stakeholders on a strategic approach to the management of LFH in the rangelands of WA. This is the first Strategy developed for LFH in WA. It describes the principles of effective LFH management, setting the goals and priorities that will help improve WA’s ability to deliver economic, environmental and social benefits through improved LFH management. The Strategy guides and informs stakeholders responsible for the on-ground management of LFH, rather than prescribing detailed on-ground actions and activities.
The guiding principles for this Strategy are: Large feral herbivores are managed to ensure sustainability of natural resource; participation of all stakeholders; risk-based and informed by evidence decision making; new technologies; innovation; and capacity buidling.
The Strategy envisages 6 Goals and several strategies: Goal 1 - LFH management is collaborative, coordinated and integrated Strategy. In order to achieve this the Strategy recommends to: Facilitate collaboration between all stakeholders and enable sharing of knowledge, resources and skills Strategy; Review and address, wherever possible, legislative, policy, social or cultural barriers that prevent a tenure-blind approach for LFH management; Build the knowledge, capacity and commitment of all stakeholders to deliver a coordinated, regional scale and tenure-blind approach to LFH management; Establish and support an advisory group with broad representation from key stakeholder groups to guide LFH management in WA. Goal 2 - LFH management is innovative, effective and cost-efficient. The Strategies connected to this Goal are: Quantify the environmental, economic and social impacts of LFH in all regions to ensure transparent investment in LFH management that is prioritised by asset value, region and species; Set location-specific targets for LFH control that are evidence-based, and recognise the practical limitations of current management techniques and available resources; Establish and support monitoring programs of sufficient scale and intensity to improve evaluation of the effectiveness of LFH management activities; Collaboratively develop, apply and evaluate innovative new management techniques; Explore options to address State government policies and processes that restrict the ability of landholders, particularly RBGs, to undertake timely and cost-effective management activities; Facilitate commercial harvesting of LFH where it complements but does not conflict with other integrated LFH management approaches; Explore options to enable additional appropriately trained and licensed operators to undertake aerial control of LFH Goal 3 - LFH management is adequately resourced and ongoing. The Strategies promote to investigate ongoing and stable funding streams to support the administration and delivery of effective LFH management on government and privately owned or managed land; and ensure that public funding directed to RBGs for LFH management can be accounted for and linked to strategic plans, while still retaining flexibility to undertake opportunistic or emergency management activities Goal 4 - Reporting mechanisms support effective LFH management and facilitate stakeholder engagement through the development of an easy-to-use reporting system to ensure consistent processes for reporting and sharing information Goal 5 - LFH management is undertaken to the highest animal welfare standards and complies with all relevant legislation, such as review the role of compliance with biosecurity and animal welfare legislation in LFH programs Goal 6 - The Western Australian public is supportive of LFH management, this can be achieved by raising public awareness of the current environmental, economic and social impacts.