Countries of Europe and Central Asia gather to improve plant health

Plants produce the oxygen we breathe and make up 80 percent of the food we eat. Simply put, plant health is vital for human health. According to FAO estimates, however, up to 40 percent of food crops are lost each year to plant pests and diseases. This is why the work of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) to safeguard plant health is so important.

Agricultural experts from the countries of Europe and Central Asia are joining national contact points of the Convention this week in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova’s capital city, for an IPPC workshop. Participants will prepare regional positions on international plant health standards, widen their phytosanitary knowledge for preventing the entry and establishment of invasive plant pests, and share best practices regarding plant health.

The workshop, running from 2 to 5 September, is organized by the IPPC Secretariat in cooperation with FAO and the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization. This meeting in Chisinau is one of seven IPPC annual regional workshops organized around the world in 2019 under the theme “Plant health and capacity development.”

“This event aims to raise awareness of the importance of developing the capacity of staff, institutions and systems at the national level to improve plant health,” said Jingyuan Xia, the secretary of the IPPC. He emphasized that evaluations of phytosanitary capacity play an important role in supporting national phytosanitary capacity, and he encouraged participants to discuss this issue.
“Europe and Central Asia is large and very diverse, but pests threaten plant resources across the region in exactly the same way,” said Piotr Wlodarczyk, an FAO agricultural officer based in Europe and Central Asia. “Workshops like this are so important because international cooperation and harmonization of plant health activities are indispensable to reduce pest risks associated with human-assisted or natural movements of pests between countries.”

The workshop will also highlight preparations for the International Year of Plant Health in 2020 and encourage participants to discuss how to promote it in their countries.

“The phytosanitary community is facing increasing challenges from ever-expanding trade to climate change,” said Francisco Javier Trujillo Arriaga, chairperson of the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures, which serves as the governing body of the IPPC. “The International Year of Plant Health is expected to put plant health and protection high on the policy agenda and increase the public’s awareness of its importance in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.”

The International Plant Protection Convention is an international treaty established in 1952 with a mission to protect the world’s plant resources by preventing the introduction and spread of harmful pests. The IPPC Secretariat is hosted by FAO.

2 September 2019, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova