Increased imports of plants and timber through global trade networks provide frequent opportunities for introduction of novel plant pathogens that can cross-over from commercial to natural environments, threatening native species and ecosystem functioning. Prevention or management of such outbreaks relies on a diversity of cross-sectoral stakeholders acting along the invasion pathway. Yet guidelines are often only produced for a small number of stakeholders, missing opportunities to consider ways to control outbreaks in other parts of the pathway. We used the infection of common juniper with the invasive pathogen Phytophthora austrocedri as a case study to explore the utility of decision tools for managing outbreaks of plant pathogens in the wider environment. We invited stakeholders who manage or monitor juniper populations or supply plants or management advice to participate in a survey exploring their awareness of, and ability to use, an existing decision tree produced by a coalition of statutory agencies augmented with new distribution maps designed by the authors. Awareness of the decision tree was low across all stakeholder groups including those planting juniper for restoration purposes. Stakeholders requested that decision tools contain greater detail about environmental conditions that increase host vulnerability to the pathogen, and clearer examples of when management practices implicated in pathogen introduction or spread should not be adopted. The results demonstrate the need to set clear objectives for the purpose of decision tools and to frame and co-produce them with many different stakeholders, including overlooked groups such as growers and advisory agents, to improve management of pathogens in the wider environment.

Please see the journal article Donald et al. 2024 in Ecology and Evolution for a comprehensive description of the methods. 

In summary, a self-completion questionnaire was designed consisting of 21 open and closed format questions of which 13 were mandatory. The survey asked three questions about stakeholder experience and role relating to juniper management, Phytophthora austrocedri and juniper planting. It was then presented in two main sections with: i) six questions pertaining to the awareness and use of the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs Juniper management guidelines published in 2017 and ii) nine questions about the sources and utility of spatial information (distribution maps) followed by three questions about the expected importance of potential infection risk factors. Both the management guidelines and the Shiny app with maps of the distribution of juniper, P. austrocedri and juniper planting compiled in September 2020 are linked to as supplementary information below. 

Relevant stakeholders were identified by pooling our own knowledge of individuals and organisations associated with juniper in any capacity and sector we suspected retained privileged information. In total, we distributed the survey by email to 109 individuals (not including those forwarded by recipients) and received 41 completed surveys. A short section at the end of the survey asked participants to provide their job title and a description of their role or specialisation. This information was used to assign their responses to a stakeholder type (agent, assessor, grower, manager). Please see the journal article for a full description of stakeholder type definitions. 

The dataset was processed to remove personal information including participant names, job titles, organisations and any comments referencing specific work locations. Responses are otherwise reproduced exactly as received.