FAO convenes a new Technical Working Group meeting of the Red Palm Weevil
Multiple Cities, June 24 2020 - The Regional office for Near East and North Africa (RNE) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO) organized a series of five Zoom meetings in the period from 16-23 June 2020 for coordination of the activities of the five RPW Technical Working Groups (TWGs) on:
(i) RPW monitoring and early detection;
(ii) Biological control;
(iii) Socio-economic impact;
(iv) Phytosanitary systems and border protocols;
(v) Certified propagation material;
The Red Palm Weevil (RPW) is a serious transboundary pest of date, coconut and ornamental palms and is among the world’s major invasive pests that attacks around 40 palm species worldwide causing widespread damage to date palms and other plantations and impacts production, farmer livelihoods and the environment.
The FAO first international conference on RPW held in Rome (29 to 31 March 2017 has developed a Framework Strategy for Eradication of RPW. FAO organized a scientific international meeting on “Innovative and Sustainable Approaches for the Control of RPW” in Bari, Italy (23 to 25 October 2018). The meeting focused the attention on the gaps in the control of RPW. That was followed by a donor meeting in Abu Dhabi on 9 March 2019 which endorsed the Framework Strategy for eradication of RPW and endorsed the creation of a Trust Fund to finance its implementation. Five Technical Working Groups (TWGs) were formed to address the gaps in RPW management in three thematic areas: technology transfer, research and capacity building.
Participants in the TWG meetings included members of the RPW Trust Fund Steering Committee, AOAD, ICARDA, IPPC, NEPPO, CIHEAM-Bari, ICBA, PRS-Spain, Trust Fund donor countries (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Sultanate of Oman) and international RPW Experts, in addition to technical officers and specialists from FAO Headquarter and the Regional office for the NENA Region.
The meetings discussed essential priority activities to be conducted, partners roles and distribution of tasks, timeline schedules, participating countries, budget allocations and assigning TWG leaders to coordinate between different TWG entities.
Revised TWG proposals will be submitted by 30th June 2020 to be presented to the next meeting of the RPW programme steering committee planned for 08 July 2020 to decide on ranking projects, priority work packages, activities, funding allocations and launch of project activities.