Wildlife trade

Biological control agents

Guidelines for the import of live biological control agents

The processes for importing animal biological control agents are conducted by the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Please read this information in conjunction with the DAFF guidelines:

Applicants must contact Plant Biosecurity, DAFF to discuss their application before submitting an application to DEWHA.

Application and testing permits

Testing permits allow the importation of specimens into quarantine-approved facilities for conducting tests to obtain information for assessing potential impacts of the species on the Australian environment. A testing permit will only be issued if it can be demonstrated that the information cannot be obtained without conducting the tests in Australia.

A single testing permit will allow multiple consignments of the species to be imported for testing over a period of six months.

A separate application to amend the live import list and a report addressing the standard terms of reference must be submitted for each proposed species before a testing permit can be issued.

Note: if the species is undescribed, or there is doubt about its taxonomy, a voucher specimen or specimens of the most readily identifiable stage must be lodged at a recognised institution (e.g. the Australian National Insect Collection or a State Agricultural Insect Collection or Museum) prior to permits being issued. Please provide the name of the species in the following form: Genus name, sp. 'collection location' (Institution, voucher specimen number).

Applicants will also need an import permit from DAFF prior to bringing the species into Australia.

Lodging your application

The application, report and supporting documents can be faxed to the department in order to facilitate the processing of the application. However, permits will not be issued until the fee has been received.

Please note: If you are paying by credit card, a faxed copy of your application and supporting documentation will be sufficient.

In this section:

Permit applications and forms

Wildlife trade permits

See also:

Protection of internationally endangered plants and animals

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Last updated: Wednesday, 23-May-2012 11:11:48 EST