The ePhyto Steering Group (ESG) and Project Technical Committee (PTC) meeting was held from 13-17 March 2017 at the World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva, Switzerland. The main objective of the meeting was to advance development of the ePhyto Solution. The meeting was attended by Mr. Craig Fedchock (the IPPC Advisor) and Mr. Shane Sela (the IPPC ePhtoto Project Manager), as well as all relevant ESG and PTC members.
The ESG members reviewed the specifications for hub and generic ePhyto national system (GeNS) with the IPPC’s service provider, the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC). The ESG finalized the specifications ...
The Integration and Support Team (IST) deals with crosscutting activities of the IPPC Secretariat in close cooperation with Standard Setting Unit SSU) and Implementation Facilitation Unit (IFU), and Task Force of Communication and Advocacy (TFCA). The major achievements of the IST in 2016 are highlighted as follows:
1) Adopted General and Specific IPPC NRO Procedures at CPM-11, released 12 issues of newsletter NRO Update, and held the first IPPC Workshop on NRO for Asian countries.
2) Released renewed IPP homepage and new Online Comment System, revised the structure for IRSS pages, and released a new Help Desk.
3) Assist organization ...
Photo Copyright IPPC 2017: Malawian general notice advising travelers to declare agricultural commodities
A Trade Facilitation Agreement validation mission was conducted on 22-28 January 2017, in Lilongwe and Blantyre, Malawi with the participation of Ketevan Lomsadze, Agricultural Officer of the IPPC Secretariat, and several experts from the World Bank. The WTOs Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) is an agreement which aim is to help lower trade costs and ease customs cooperation for its member countries. The IPPC Secretariat and the World Bank's objective was to determine Malawi’s current capacity and needs for effective implementation of the WTO TFA, and ...
Photo Copyright IPPC, 2017: Monitoring and Evaluation workshop February 2017
The 2nd IPPC Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Workshop was held from 15-17 February 2017 at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy. The main objective of the workshop was to continuously strengthen staff’s capability for the IPPC Secretariat. The workshop was facilitated by Ms Cecile Kusters from the Centre for Development Innovation of Wageningen University in the Netherlands and attended by all the IPPC Secretariat staff.
This three day M&E workshop focused on progressing the Theory of Change (ToC) schematic and capturing the IPPC work activities and Strategic Framework ...
Amongst the news brought by the Twelfth Session of the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM-12), the first ever IPPC commission meeting held outside of Rome, is a CPM mobile application (“app”), available for download from mobile devices and tablets.
The app can be accessed through your Facebook or email account, and runs on Android, iOS and Google operating systems, featuring useful information about local information and programs.
Instructions to download the app can be found below:
Step 1. Go to App Store for iOS, Play Store for Google or for Android
Step 2. Search and download "Incheon Mice"
Step 3 ...
Photograph Copyright: FAO AZ, 2016, Inception meeting of the MTF/AZE/007/STF: STDF/PG/316 Strengthening phytosanitary inspection and diagnostic services in Republic of Azerbaijan
The Implementation Facilitation Unit (IFU) of the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) works to support the strengthening of phytosanitary capacities of contracting parties to implement the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and its International Standards on Phytosanitary Measures. One of the means to achieve this objective is through national level implementation projects. These projects, financed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Standards and Trade Development ...
Photograph Copyright: Sajad Hussain Mir, 2015 Bandipora, India. Bactrocera tau
Five technical resource contributions have been reviewed by the Capacity Development Committee and are now posted in the ‘Contributed Resources’ section of the Phytosanitary Resources page. Thanks to the generous contribution of USDA/APHIS, the IPPC community now has access to additional materials on pest management, pest detection and pest risk analysis (PRA). Click here to access these new Contributed Resources.
The Alabama Fire Ant Management Project The Alabama Fire Ant Management Program was brought to life in 1997 in order to aid in control and management of this imported ...
Photograph Copyright: FAO UZ 2017
The IPPC, FAO and Uzbek stakeholders met from 12 to 16 February 2017 to kick off inception activities for the FAO Project “Support to the Improvement of the National Seed, Plant Variety Protection and Phytosanitary Legislation in Uzbekistan” (TCP/UZB/3602). The IPPC is taking an active role in providing technical support to this FAO-funded project. Ketevan Lomsadze, IPPC Agricultural Officer, H. Muminjanov, Plant Production and Protection Officer (FAO-SEC), and R.Zhazykbayeva, international legal expert (FAO LEGN), participated in this mission.
This project aims to assess the status of the national phytosanitary and seed sector ...
Photograph Copyright: IPPC 2016; Derric Nimmo: Diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella)
The Implementation Facilitation Unit (IFU) of the IPPC Secretariat has made significant progress in 2016, working hard to facilitate the implementation of the Convention. Providing support to countries to improve the effectiveness of their NPPOs is a cornerstone of the work of the IPPC and 2016 has seen some remarkable achievements.
Major highlight achievements in the past year include:
1) Management of 13 active projects at the national, regional, global level with two global projects in the pipeline.
2) PCEs applied in Armenia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine under the regional ...
The IPPC Secretariat is happy to announce a release of the 2016 IPPC Annual Report. The Report was completed by the IPPC Secretariat and uploaded on our website where it can be accessed.
The 2016 IPPC Annual Report contains information on the main IPPC activities, events and meetings that took place in 2016 with Foreword from the CPM Chairperson and the IPPC Secretary. It is composed of the following chapters: 1) Background; 2) The Progress Report of the IPPC Secretariat for 2016; 3) Highlights of 2016; 4) Chronicle of Events of 2016; and 5) Reference Material.
The IPPC Secretariat would ...
Photo: Copyright IPPC 2017, Brunel, Sarah – Madagscar Field visit with participating stakeholders at quarantine facilities
Trained under the STDF401 Project, and funded by the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund (ASTF), Phytosanitary Capacity Evaluation (PCE) facilitator Alphonsine Louhouari, facilitated the first of three Phytosanitary Capacity Assessment Workshops for Madagascar.
The workshop was held from the 31st of January until the 3rd of February 2017 and attended by 15 active participants, suggesting positive outcomes for the remainder of the project. "Improved phytosanitary protection is the guarantee of better resilience to climate change," said Patrice Talla Takoukam, the FAO Representative in Madagascar. Sarah Brunel ...
The NRO Programme of the IPPC was initiated by the IPPC Secretariat in mid-2014 with numerous activities involving contracting parties (CPs) for improving an area left neglected for some time. As a result, the year 2015 and 2016 were two record years in a row with the highest total numbers of reports made available by CPs on the IPP (Fig. 1). This level has not been seen since 2005.
In case of Pest reports (the category with the most stable improvement tendency each year), as noted above, 2015 and 2016 were two record years with inputs of 92 and 98 ...
Prof. Dr Jens-Georg Unger
The international plant health community mourns the passing of Prof. Dr Jens-Georg Unger, Director of the Institute for National and International Plant Health at the Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants (Julius Kühn-Institut) in Germany. “Jens” as he was generally known to friends and colleagues alike died suddenly and unexpected on the 28th of February 2017 in his home near Braunschweig, Germany.
Jens, an alumnus of the University of Göttingen, where he also obtained his Dr agr. sc. in 1989, started his plant health career at the Federal Biological Research Institute (BBA) for Agriculture and ...
Photograph: B.R. Wiseman – USDA/ARF, Tifton (US)
According to the FAO regional Office for Africa a fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) outbreak, the first emergence of the pest in southern Africa, is causing considerable crop damage in some countries in that region. The pest damages maize and cotton plantations. Based on information from the FAO Sub-regional Coordinator for southern Africa, David Phiri, it appears that “preliminary reports indicate possible presence (of the pest)” in a number of countries in the region, although it has yet to be officially reported.
As the the FAO regional Office for Africa reports, fall armyworm ...
International Plant Protection Convention