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Weed of National Significance: Buffel grass listing

Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris and other related species) is a high-impact environmental grass species and the greatest invasive species threat to environment and culture across the central deserts. Buffel promotes larger, more intense and more frequent wildfires. It has already transformed millions of hectares of habitat into a fire-promoting monoculture and risks invading up to 68 percent of the continent. It impacts dozens of threatened species, monocrops landscapes, degrades soils, is a public safety threat, suppresses wildflowers, bushfoods and bush medicines, significantly impacting First Nations cultures, sacred sites and inter-generational knowledge sharing, as well as affecting public safety threat, the tourism industry, human health, social wellbeing, essential infrastructure and economic diversification. 

Buffel grass was implicated in the horrific Maui fires in Hawaii in August 2023, which resulted in over 100 fatalities. Homes and dwellings were also lost in Alice Springs in 2023. The existential threat posed by buffel grass invasion is real and known. 

A Weed of National Significance listing is a message of hope, that action on buffel grass is essential to conserve this continent's inland waterways, landscapes, species, First Nations cultures and remote communities. There are a myriad of opportunities to significantly advance the management of buffel grass across the continent and a Weed of National Significance listing will turbo-charge research, national coordination and resourcing as well as on-ground management. 

Will you sign?

Dear Tanya Plibersek,

I strongly support declaring buffel grass a Weed of National Significance.

Buffel grass is already found in every mainland state and the Northern Territory. It may be suitable to establish across up to 68 percent of the continent. Buffel grass is already found at Uluru-Kata Tjuta, the MacDonnell Ranges, the Great Victoria Desert, and the Pilbara. Buffel continues to encroach into the Kimberley, Simpson Desert, the Lake Eyre Basin and even the Victorian mallee.

It is already found in dozens and dozens of Indigenous Protected Areas, national parks and conservation areas across the country. It is a public safety threat for countless communities across the central deserts.

There are significant opportunities to confront the buffel grass crisis across much of inland Australia, and protect nature and at least 31 different threatened species, conserve culture, care for Country and significantly reduce the impacts of buffel grass invasion to public safety, human health, the tourism industry, economic diversification, social wellbeing and essential infrastructure. The impacts of climate change will compound the threat posed by buffel grass invasion. 

We must act now!

A Weeds of National Significance listing is recognition that buffel grass invasion requires national coordination and resourcing to stop the spread of buffel grass into new areas and to mitigate the impacts of buffel grass invasion in affected landscapes. It is also a key opportunity to turbocharge research solutions. 

A Weed of National Significance listing is a message of hope, that action on buffel grass is essential to conserve this continent's inland waterways, landscapes, species, First Nations cultures and remote communities. There are a myriad of opportunities to significantly advance the management of buffel grass across the continent and a Weed of National Significance listing will turbo-charge research, national coordination and resourcing as well as on-ground management. 

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