How an Indigenous community responded to the incursion and spread of myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) that threatens culturally significant plant species – a case study from New Zealand

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Black ◽  
Melanie Mark-Shadbolt ◽  
Gary Garner ◽  
Jenny Green ◽  
Tame Malcolm ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Rust Disease ◽  
Pests And Diseases ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
Myrtle Rust ◽  
Plant Nursery ◽  
Austropuccinia Psidii

The incursion of the myrtle rust disease (Austropuccinia psidii) was officially confirmed on 3 May 2017 at a plant nursery located in Kerikeri, North Island, New Zealand. Since then the presence of myrtle rust has now been located throughout New Zealand, with additional outbreaks in Taranaki, Waikato and Bay of Plenty. It has been detected on a range of Myrtaceaea species including ramarama (Lophomyrtus bullata), pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa), Monkey apple (Syzygium smithii), mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium), and Eucalyptus spp. (E. botryoides). Many of these species are iconic to the Indigenous Māori and have historical significance, being taonga (treasures). Since the incursions, Te Tira Whakamātaki (National Māori Biosecurity Network), have been informing Māori communities throughout New Zealand about the potential impacts of myrtle rust via a series of regional meetings (hui), email and social media that have included brief reports and recommendations. Feedback from these meetings and social media has strongly highlighted the desires of Māori communities to be active participants in decision-making and response plans for the management of myrtle rust as well as other pests and diseases. In this paper, we describe the journey of an Indigenous community approach to a modern biosecurity incursion.

scholarly journals New Zealand indigenous Myrtaceae in foreign botanic gardens: testing the sentinel plant concept for biosecurity risk assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Kirsty S.H. Boyd-Wilson ◽  
M. Virginia Marroni ◽  
Mark R. McNeill ◽  
David A.J. Teulon
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
The United States ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Indigenous Plants ◽  
Myrtle Rust ◽  
Potential Pest ◽  
Austropuccinia Psidii ◽  
Plant Biosecurity

The use of sentinel or expatriate plants is a growing concept for risk assessment in plant biosecurity. This approach involves ascertaining the presence and impact of pests and pathogens on plants foreign to a given location but planted in international botanic gardens or arboreta. The data obtained provide information on the potential pest status of these pests and pathogens, as invasive alien species (IAS), to plant species in their native or indigenous range. Assessment of the biosecurity threat from IAS for indigenous plants not found within the geographic distribution of these pests and pathogens is challenging, however, as they may be relatively taxonomically distinct from plants found in the distribution of the IAS and can be in different climates and environments. We examine the sentinel/expatriate concept in relation to risk assessment for myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) on New Zealand Myrtaceae on these plants found in botanic gardens and arboreta outside New Zealand. Between September 2017 and September 2018, we identified and then contacted 65 botanic gardens or arboreta that putatively had New Zealand Myrtaceae and were within the known distribution of myrtle rust. We asked for information on the presence of New Zealand Myrtaceae species in their collections and whether these plants were infected by myrtle rust. Sixteen gardens/arboreta responded; most were in Australia or the United States. Only one of these gardens provided information that was useful for biosecurity risk assessment for myrtle rust on New Zealand Myrtaceae. The results are discussed in the context of plant biosecurity risk assessment and the broader sentinel/expatriate plant concept.

scholarly journals Humanity's Gone Viral

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Claire Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
Digital Networks ◽  
Digital Architecture ◽  
First Case ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Muslim Communities

<p><b>This dissertation explores the role that hashtags play in maintaining political, social, and technological inequalities in modern society. It argues that the use of what I call ‘collectivising hashtags’, i.e., hashtags characterised by their use of pronouns to inclusively identify with Others, affords new opportunities for self-expression that may simultaneously empower and compromise certain individuals. It is written in response to experiences of racism shared via the #TheyAreUs and #ThisIsNotUs collectivising hashtags that trended following the terror attack on Muslim communities in Ōtautahi, Christchurch in March 2019, and questions commonly held assumptions by privileged users about the non-discriminatory nature of Aotearoa New Zealand politics and society. Using #TheyAreUs and #ThisIsNotUs as my first case study, I demonstrate how collectivising hashtags involve forms of appropriation on the part of privileged users, reinforcing unequal social hierarchies and silencing marginalised bodies. I consider the New Zealand Human Rights Commission’s #ThatsUs campaign in my second case study, assessing the vernacular affordances of social media that enable or restrict affected and affecting bodies’ ability to respond to social and technological inequalities. I also explore the clever and imaginative ways that digital counterpublics subvert online interactions through strategic use of digital architecture, labour, visibility, and invisibility when addressing hashtags and social media platforms as racialised performances of self.</b></p> <p>Users’ everyday online encounters with collectivising hashtags present an opportunity to challenge dominant conceptions of self. Following the critical feminist traditions of Judith Butler, Erinn Gilson, and Kate Schick, my analysis incorporates an ethic of vulnerability in order to interrogate underlying power relations and people’s location within them. My dissertation illustrates how hashtags are technologically created and structured in a way that affords certain bodies more political potential than others. I show that everyday performances of self via collectivising hashtag practices have the political potential to formatively shift who qualifies as ‘human.’To assess the affordances of collectivising hashtags, I used a multimodal analytic technique developed by André Brock called Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis. I also conducted in-depth interviews with hashtag users and analysed the soft structures of digital networks, social media platforms and processes, and hashtag functionalities and their affects. Drawing on Melissa Harris-Perry’s concept of the Crooked Room, I assert that collectivising hashtags operate within a ‘crooked platform’ which problematises the recognition of marginalised bodies. This analysis encourages users to think critically about the affecting nature of their online practices and privileges, or risk becoming complicit in the wider relations of power in which discrimination, oppression, and violence fester. As privileged users develop new practices of digital reconstitution in which an embodied online praxis is conceived in affective terms, I argue that they can instead embrace their own vulnerability, alterity, and precariousness, and move towards a fuller conception of what it means to be human.</p>

scholarly journals The problem with grubby footwear at international borders a New Zealand case study of golfers

2008 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 384-384
Author(s):  
T.D. White ◽  
T.A. Payne ◽  
M.R. McNeill ◽  
D.T. Bewsell
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Risk Awareness ◽  
Geographical Isolation ◽  
Leaf Material ◽  
Pests And Diseases ◽  
Entry Pathway ◽  
International Borders ◽  
Raising Awareness

Due to New Zealands geographical isolation the country is free from many pests and diseases that are problematic in agricultural horticultural and natural environments elsewhere To help protect against incursions by new pests and diseases biosecurity officers check and if necessary clean travellers footwear as they enter the country Golf shoes can collect and carry contaminants such as soil and leaf matter If contaminated footwear is not detected at the border it can provide an entry pathway for potential biosecurity hazards such as unwanted pests and diseases This research examined the experiences of golfers returning to New Zealand after playing golf overseas both in terms of their risk awareness and of their biosecurity experiences at the New Zealand border Results show that 36 of respondents were unsure whether soil and leaf material found on golf shoes was a biosecurity risk while 56 of respondents had not seen any information regarding the requirement for clean sport shoes when travelling This may influence their response to biosecurity issues when travelling and returning to New Zealand Raising awareness of the biosecurity risks and encouraging participation among golfers could be achieved through golforientated information packs that include cleaning brushes

Lessons from the Incursion of Myrtle Rust in Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 457-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angus J. Carnegie ◽  
Geoff S. Pegg
Keyword(s):  
Action Plan ◽  
Response Strategy ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Pests And Diseases ◽  
Myrtle Rust ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Exotic Pests ◽  
Environmental Pathogens ◽  
Austropuccinia Psidii ◽  
Environmental Agencies

Austropuccinia psidii (myrtle rust) is a globally invasive neotropical rust of the Myrtaceae that came into international prominence following extensive damage to exotic Eucalyptus plantations in Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2005, myrtle rust established in Hawaii (USA), and over the past 12 years has spread from the Americas into Asia, the Pacific, and South Africa. Myrtle rust was detected in Australia in 2010, and the response and ultimately unsuccessful eradication attempt was a lesson to those concerned about the threat of exotic pests and diseases to Australia's environment. Seven years following establishment, we are already observing the decline of many myrtaceous species and severe impacts to native plant communities. However, the recently developed Myrtle rust in Australia draft action plan identified that there is no nationally coordinated response strategy for the environmental dimensions of this threat. Recent reviews have identified a greater need for involvement from environmental agencies in biosecurity preparedness, response, and resourcing, and we believe this approach needs to extend to the management of invasive environmental pathogens once they establish.

scholarly journals Resistance of New Zealand Provenance Leptospermum scoparium, Kunzea robusta, Kunzea linearis, and Metrosideros excelsa to Austropuccinia psidii

Plant Disease ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 104 (6) ◽  
pp. 1771-1780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant R. Smith ◽  
Beccy J. Ganley ◽  
David Chagné ◽  
Jayanthi Nadarajan ◽  
Ranjith N. Pathirana ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Resistance Mechanisms ◽  
Rust Disease ◽  
Disease Symptoms ◽  
Stem Infection ◽  
Stem Resistance ◽  
New Finding ◽  
Austropuccinia Psidii ◽  
Assessment Scales ◽  
Leptospermum Scoparium

Resistance to the pandemic strain of Austropuccinia psidii was identified in New Zealand provenance Leptospermum scoparium, Kunzea robusta, and K. linearis plants. Only 1 Metrosideros excelsa-resistant plant was found (of the 570 tested) and no resistant plants of either Lophomyrtus bullata or L. obcordata were found. Three types of resistance were identified in Leptospermum scoparium. The first two, a putative immune response and a hypersensitive response, are leaf resistance mechanisms found in other myrtaceous species while on the lateral and main stems a putative immune stem resistance was also observed. Both leaf and stem infection were found on K. robusta and K. linearis plants as well as branch tip dieback that developed on almost 50% of the plants. L. scoparium, K. robusta, and K. linearis are the first myrtaceous species where consistent infection of stems has been observed in artificial inoculation trials. This new finding and the first observation of significant branch tip dieback of plants of the two Kunzea spp. resulted in the development of two new myrtle rust disease severity assessment scales. Significant seed family and provenance effects were found in L. scoparium, K. robusta, and K. linearis: some families produced significantly more plants with leaf, stem, and (in Kunzea spp.) branch tip dieback resistance, and provenances provided different percentages of resistant families and plants. The distribution of the disease symptoms on plants from the same seed family, and between plants from different seed families, suggested that the leaf, stem, and branch tip dieback resistances were the result of independent disease resistance mechanisms.

scholarly journals Monitoring Austropuccinia psidii (myrtle rust) on New Zealand Myrtaceae in native forest

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roanne Sutherland ◽  
◽  
Julia Soewarto ◽  
Rob Beresford ◽  
Beccy Ganley
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Native Forest ◽  
Myrtle Rust ◽  
Austropuccinia Psidii

scholarly journals Compiling myrtle rust surveillance data for the 2017-18 New Zealand incursion

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 356
Author(s):  
Rebecca E. Campbell ◽  
David A.J. Teulon
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Monitoring Data ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Sampling Effort ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Myrtle Rust ◽  
Food Research ◽  
Austropuccinia Psidii

As the observed distribution of myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) changes within New Zealand, many stakeholders are interested in the spread of this disease, resulting in a number of organisations carrying out various levels of monitoring. There is a need to compile these monitoring data from multiple sources and provide easy access to basic disease distribution information, for the benefit of all interested parties. This should include not only locations of positive myrtle-rust detections, but also the rate of monitoring in areas where it has not yet been detected (confirmed absence). This project provided visual information in the form of maps that are easy to interpret by general and/or specific users. Resolution was useful and informative while maintaining privacy of landowners. A series of maps is presented, showing the advance in sampling effort and the disease distribution across New Zealand, as measured from surveillance effort from Ministry for Primary Industries, Department of Conservation, botanical gardens, Plant and Food Research and the Myrtle Rust Reporter app (NatureWatch NZ). Further analysis of such data will inform ongoing management and research.

Social Media and The COVID-19 Response: A Case Study of Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-83
Author(s):  
Zarqa Shaheen Ali ◽  
Wen Jiao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
User Reviews ◽  
Business Innovation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Official Information

COVID-19 pandemic is spreading across the globe, causing huge losses to humans and changing people’s lifestyles. New Zealand has also suffered from this fatal virus outbreak. Social media has been used by governments from many countries for communication about COVID-19, but the research on social media used in COVID-19 remains limited. This research aims to study how the leading New Zealand business agency, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), used Facebook to disseminate COVID-19, and how businesses and the public benefitted from it. Facebook posts from MBIE published over two months from March 18, 2020, to May 12, 2020, as well as user reviews were collected and thematically analysed. Before the research was conducted, an Official Information Act request was submitted to MBIE and an approval confirmation was received for using any publicly available information released by MBIE. The findings indicate Facebook was used by MBIE as a comprehensive channel to address COVID-19, as well as being an avenue to interact with businesses and people, and businesses and people benefitted from it in multiple aspects.

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