Purpose

AC BEE’s mission is to lead Australia and the region in biosecurity and environmental economics research, with an emphasis on policy applications.

Our specialty is economic approaches to protecting the environment and plant, animal and human health from invasive species. We also provide broad expertise in applied research on environmental economics and natural resource management as a whole.

As a research unit of the Crawford School AC BEE maintains a central focus on engaging with and assisting the public policy process.

Context

The development of trade between regions and countries is an increasingly important characteristic of modern economies. With increased trade comes the risk of importing exotic diseases and pests.

Biosecurity programs provide an essential protection against such threats, safeguarding both consumers and producers from imported pests and diseases. Left unchecked, these threats can harm human, plant and animal health, damage local agricultural and industrial production and destroy environmental assets.

The focus of AC BEE is on the ‘economics of biosecurity’ and environmental economics, with an emphasis on work in the following:

• Optimal border quarantine and local surveillance measures
• Pre-border controls and risk-return analysis
• Economic and environmental valuation
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Bioeconomic modeling
• Natural resource management

Director of AC BEE:

Professor Tom Kompas

Tom Kompas is Professor of Economics and was Director of the Crawford School. He is the Foundation Director of AC BEE, an Editor of the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics and in 2009 was a recipient of The Australian National University’s highest award for teaching, the ‘Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching’.

His bioeconomic modelling and biosecurity research has been published in the world’s leading international journals (including Science) and his current work focuses on the major biosecurity issues in both Australia and internationally.