Eighteenth Australasian Weeds Conference

Summary ‘Containment ’ is a common strategic objective for invasive plants and the term is widely used in strategy documents. It is commonly prescribed as a ‘fall-back ’ option when eradication is deemed not feasible but we challenge the implied assumption that containment is easier than eradication. The use of the term ‘containment ’ is often not supported by a rigorous definition or it is assumed that an intuitive understand-ing is both universal and adequate. Containment is often advocated without a systematic analysis of the prospects of success. Some references in the manage-ment literature just propose containment as a broad objective; others provide some conceptual context. Some strategies incorporate the all-important spatial element but without reference to scale. The most ad-vanced containment strategies are those built on a clear definition, covering the introduced range but making provision for delimitation and addressing individual infestations. A more rigorous approach to containment would encompass all infestations of a targeted species; tailor an approach to that species and the situations in which it is growing; define containment units that are centred on individual infestations or populations; and provide for the likelihood that those units will be breached by the plant’s dispersal capacity