Engaging with risk (or not): shared responsibility for biosecurity surveillance and the role of community gardens

Urban Farm DB summary

In a context of heightened regional biosecurity activity in northern Queensland, Australia, researchers interviewed 16 community garden group leaders and local government representatives to examine how community garden actors engage with biosecurity surveillance. Informal factors such as social networks shaped engagement more than institutional characteristics like land tenure or the presence of management policies; unengaged stakeholders were typically unaware of pest and disease risks and had limited government network connections but expressed interest in learning, while disengaged stakeholders knew more about the risks and had established networks yet showed low interest in reporting threats.