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Zambia is one of the nine countries from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) that have requested to implement the Phytosanitary Capacity Evaluation (PCE) process within the year, 2023. The programme which will be delivered under the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) project ‘Strengthening Food Control and Phytosanitary Capacities and Governance’ is a modular tool that is country-directed and paced, developed to provide a country, a consistent basis to evaluate its national phytosanitary capacities. A PCE is also an important instrument used to guide capacity development needs with stakeholders’ participation for relevance. It is therefore a framework that the country adopts for its own purpose and benefit. The Department of Plant Quarantine and Phytosanitary Service (PQPS) which is the National Plant Protection Organisation (NPPO) of Zambia therefore participated in the PCE Facilitator Training Course which was held in Rome, at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, from 28th November to 7th December 2022. The training course was organised by the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretariat in which nine trainees from eight countries who had initially completed the pre-learning courses were trained on the PCE process. During the training, the skills and knowledge of trainees on phytosanitary matters, use of the logical framework approach in project development and understanding of the PCE modules was strengthened. The training was facilitated by experienced PCE facilitators who guided the trainees on the role of the PCE facilitator which includes to provide guidance to the NPPO as they work through the self-selected modules to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses and priority areas for improvement of their phytosanitary system, management and phytosanitary core activities. Interactive activities such as role play and group exercises were used to reinforce the training learning objectives and to enhance organisation, communication, presentation and teamwork skills among participants. At the end of the training, trainees were awarded a certificate of participation. The NPPO of Zambia was represented by Justina Chivanga Mwila and Brenda Mweemba. The trainees are however expected to apply the acquired knowledge and skill upon their return home to strengthen their phytosanitary systems in their own countries. However, before trainees are considered as certified PCE facilitators, they must work successfully alongside an experienced PCE facilitator to deliver a PCE process in a country that has requested for a PCE process.

Rome, 24 November 2022. The Technical Panel on Glossary (TPG) of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) is gathering for its annual meeting from 28 November to 2 December 2022 at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) headquarters in Santiago, Chile. The meeting will be the first in-person for the TPG since the COVID-19 pandemic and the first one to take place outside of Rome since the last in-person meeting was held in Copenhagen in 2008. This year, the Panel will advance its work by reviewing the country comments on the Draft Amendments to the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM) 5 that were submitted to the first IPPC consultation in 2022. In addition, the TPG will provide suggestions on consistency, terminology and translation comments received on ulterior draft ISPMs that will be transmitted to the Stewards. The TPG will continue its routine work of reviewing the consistency of adopted ISPMs. The TPG was recently tasked by the IPPC Standards Committee (SC) to re-consider some terminologies in the 2021 Draft Amendments to ISPM 5. The terms in question are: *“inspection” (2017-005); *“test” (2021-005); *“visual examinations” (2022-01). The TPG will resume its work on the term “Emerging pest” (2018-003) that will be compiled into a new “Draft Amendments to the Glossary” and then sent to the SC in its bi-annual meeting in May 2023. Based on discussions held at the November SC meeting, the TPG will update its work plan for 2023 and 2024 which will be presented to the SC in May 2023.

© FAO/Jake Salvador

Posted on Tue, 04 Oct 2022, 14:23 Interview with IPPC Secretary for The Loadstar. Climate change and international trade are combining to put the very existence of life on Earth at risk. That is not a crazy unfounded risk assessment by a dogmatic green activist, but the considered opinion of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). And the UN says that changes that will protect food and agriculture supplies must come soon. The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) is an intergovernmental treaty signed by more than 180 countries, and its secretary, Osama El- Lissy, along with Nicola Spence, the UK’s chief plant health officer, released a paper on 21 September warning that some 40% of crops, around $220bn worth, is lost to plant pests every year. Mr El Lissy told The Loadstar a further $70bn is spent by the private sector working with national jurisdictions to contain the spread of invasive pests, bringing the total cost of disease and the spread of pests to a little under $300bn. “Climate change has increased pest incursions, particularly in new places where they had not been detected previously but have now thrived. Changing temperatures, humidity, light and wind are the second most important factors for pests to disperse, next to international travel and trade,” wrote Ms Spence and Mr El Lissy. The convention introduced International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs) as its main tool to achieve its goals to reduce the spread of pests and diseases, making it the sole global standard setting organisation for plant health. Plants provide 80% of our food and 98% of the air we breathe, are critical to life on Earth and must be protected at all costs. ISPM’s have the aim of protecting global plant resources from the spread and introduction of pests while also promoting safe trade. With international trade identified as one of the key factors in the spread of invasive species, organisms that, when taken from their natural habitat and moved to an area where they have few or no natural predators, can wreak havoc on local flora and agriculture. Established in 2005 the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) is effectively the governing body of the IPPC and is a panel of experts that meets annually to coordinate the global protection of plants. In addition, this year the IPPC held a conference in late September, preceded by the Sea Containers Workshop, which included experts from the IPPC and the transport and logistics industry working to mitigate the risks posed by the spread of invasive species. Moving food around the globe is necessary to feed the parts of the world where food is scarce, explained Mr El Lissy, “The trick is how can we do this in a safe manner so that invasive pests and diseases are not moved along the pathway of agricultural products and food?” Focusing on global supply chains, Peregrine Storrs-Fox, risk management director at TT Club, believes: “The question is around containerisation, what is the level of the risk played out in containers and that’s difficult to identify? Containers aren’t the only pathway for invasive pests.” For Mr Storrs-Fox. everyone can see the problem and believes containerisation has played a role in the spread of invasive species, but we need to know “the level of contribution to the problem and, therefore, what are appropriate, proportionate measures to take.” In addition, he said one of the key messages the “IPPC was careful to state” was that, while the convention wants to mitigate the threat from invasive species, it recognises that mitigation must come “without significant impact on trade flows and logistics”. Although the extent of the problem from containerisation cannot currently be accurately identified, the Sea Containers workshop did agree on a number of issues, according to the CEO of the International Cargo Handling Coordination Association (ICHCA), Richard Steele. “The two sides weren’t miles apart,” he said. One of the discussions centred around the design of the ubiquitous transport container, “the optimum design for a container is egg shaped”, laughed Mr Steele, with the more serious point that many containers have wooden floors and many indents and pockets for pests to hide in. “Customs and excise don’t want voids where things can be hidden,” explained Mr Steele, and things can hide, such as smaller organisms, spiders, moths and their larvae. But he conceded that slots for forklift blades and the corner blocks where twist locks and crane spreaders hold and lift boxes remain crucial to the design. Though both Mr Steele and Mr Storrs-Fox concede that while it is not possible to completely eliminate all movement of invasive species, there are simple actions that can be taken to reduce their spread. “All-steel floors in containers does not add significant cost to its price,” said Mr Steele. However, if a container is loaded at night under lights, these attract pests and can lead to unwanted organisms entering the box. Other mitigation that could be taken is the use of new coatings that prevent, or at least deter, organisms from attaching themselves to the outside of containers. Nevertheless, the chief method for containing the spread of unwanted pests in and on containers is to “continue to raise awareness throughout the supply chain, because there are people that are not aware of these problems”, explained Mr Steel. Asked if fumigants were a part of the answer – a method recently favoured by Chinese authorities to control the spread of Covid in particular – Mr Storrs-Fox and Mr El Lissy’s views were closely aligned. In the opinion of the TT Club, fumigants can cause sickness, but also the nature of supply chains is that they are cross-border, so fumigating in one country may help to get rid pests at that point, but there is a need to ensure that the entire supply chain is protected. “We need to have someone looking over all of this [the supply chain and the various interests],” explained Mr Storrs-Fox, “there’s a silo looking at plant protection and their interests, then you need to look

Incheon, 6 September. The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Asia Pacific Plant Protection Commission (APPPC) regional workshop was successfully convened from 29 August to 2 September 2022. The workshop was held in hybrid mode this year, with 27 participants attending in person and 11 participants virtually, from a total of 13 countries in Asia and the Pacific. The workshop was chaired by Kyu-Ock Yim from the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA), Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of the Republic of Korea. IPPC Secretary Osama El-Lissy opened the workshop through a video message by emphasizing the essential role that innovative plant health methods have in guaranteeing the right to food for everyone. Park BK, Commissioner of APQA delivered the welcome remarks by highlighting the importance of tackling plant health issues. Yubak Dhoj GC from the APPPC Secretariat and Fuxiang Wang and Peter Thomson, CPM Bureau members of Asia and the Pacific, thanked APQA for organizing the hybrid workshop and expected participants to have a fruitful discussion. Participants discussed the six draft standards, especially Revision of ISPM 4 (Requirements for the establishment of pest free areas), Revision of ISPM 18 (Guidelines for the use of irradiation as a phytosanitary measure), and Criteria for evaluation of available information for determining host status of fruit to fruit flies to ISPM 37 (Determination of host status of fruit flies (Tephritidae)). The Standards Committee representatives provided an outline of the draft standards and participants discussed the draft standards through the Online Comment System. As a result of discussion, they agreed to regional comments to be submitted to the IPPC Secretariat. The CPM Bureau, the Standards Committee and the Implementation and Capacity Development Committee member in the Asian region and the IPPC Secretariat provided updates and presented additional topics including IPPC activities such as the ePhyto solution, the IPPC Observatory and Phytosanitary Capacity Evaluation. The APPPC Secretariat provided updates on regional issues particularly on the Fall Armyworm Global Action and regional achievements on Fall Armyworm management. He also highlighted APPPC activities after the IPPC regional workshop last year including planning and preparation for the 32nd session of the APPPC that will be held in Bangkok, Thailand in November 2022. The Chair of the Standards Committee, Sophie Peterson, provided updates on the commodity standards that are under development while Lihong Zhu, IPPC contact point of New Zealand, presented the results of the APPPC regional workshop on commodity standards held from 2-3 June 2022. Proposal of commodities were introduced and the discussion about the development of Regional Standards for Phytosanitary Measures or submission to the IPPC call for topics will continue during the APPPC session in November. In accordance with this year’s workshop theme “Innovative Plant Health for Food Security”, two activities at the national level were introduced. One is about a remote surveillance technology for Fruit Fries in islands that is piloted by Naha Plant Protection Station, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. Another is on an ongoing project about integrated pest management (IPM) research to develop non-chemical pest controls implemented by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization of Japan. Participants held a one-day visit to the National Agrobiodiversity Center (Suwon regional center) and learned about the preservation of genetic resources that were imported by the Specific Import Authorization and was discussed as one of the draft standards, draft annex to ISPM 20: Use of Specific Import Authorizations. Participants thanked the APQA and APPPC Secretariat for their efforts in organizing the successful hybrid workshop. The Standards Committee Chair acknowledged that having the hybrid workshop was challenging for the host country but thanked participants for an interactive session and for their engagement. She also highlighted the importance for all participating countries to submit their comments and actively participate in the consultation of the draft standards. More details on IPPC APPPC Regional Workshop will be published on the International Phytosanitary Portal (IPP).