Jeff Odera, Director, Kenya Forestry Research Institute and Gillian Allard, Regional Coordinator, International Institute of Biological Control
Africa has recently been facing serious pest problems in forestry and agro-forestry particularly with exotic pest invasions. These pests respect no international borders and combined with the unintentional assistance of man, move freely across the African Continent. Attempts are made to control these pests when they invade a particular country but with limited resources effective control may be difficult to achieve, thus posing a potential threat to neighbouring countries.
Thus, the value of regional interactions and collaborations in controlling specific pests has been increasingly recognized, leading to the concept of a regional forest pest management network. The potential importance of such a network was first recognized at a workshop held in Muguga, Kenya, 3-6 June 1991, "Exotic aphid pest of conifers: A crisis in African forestry". The topic was subsequently discussed at a subregional workshop on leucaena psyllid, "A threat to Agroforestry in Africa", held in Dar es Salaam, 10-14 October 1994.
Since 1992 an informal network of forestry pest management personnel has been established under the auspices of the IIBC Regional Biological Control Programme for Conifer Aphids, sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Overseas Development Administration, UK (ODA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Through this network linkages have already been established throughout east and southern Africa involving information and scientific exchange.
The workshop reported in these proceedings held at Muguga, Kenya, 24-28 April, is thus the culmination of several years experience and discussion. Its purpose was to bring together Directors of Forestry Research and National Forestry Corporations and policy makers from East, Central and Southern Africa to discuss the formation of a forestry pest management network for Africa which will cover insects, diseases and weeds affecting forestry. In total six countries were represented including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan and South Africa. Invitations had been extended to Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Zaire and Burundi but unfortunately for various reasons these countries could not be represented. They will, however, have the opportunity of commenting on the formation of this network and on the deliberations of this workshop.
In addition the workshop was supported and attended by several international organizations, including the International Institute of Biological Control, the International Mycological Institute, the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry. The University of the Orange Free State South Africa and the Canadian Forest Service were also represented. The range of expertise was diverse and included forest entomologists and pathologists, foresters, policy makers and directors of forestry research.
On the last day the opportunity was made available for attendance by personnel involved in forestry including the Forestry Department of Kenya, various NGOs and the donor community. We were delighted that the Director of Forestry for Kenya and senior personnel from the Kenya Forestry Master Plan were able to be present at this summing up session, as well as a representative of JICA. Thus the meeting was well attended.
The workshop was ably facilitated by GS Consult, ensuring that full interactive participation was possible. All participants contributed to the vigorous discussions, thus ensuring the success of the meeting, well documented in the following proceedings. A draft Charter has been formulated and this will now be finalised before being ratified as the document for the formation of this network.
A Task Force has been selected with the mandate for ensuring that the network becomes operational. They will be responsible for finalization of the Charter and for organizing the first Steering Committee Meeting.
This workshop was organized by the Kenya Forestry Research Institute in technical collaboration with the International Institute of Biological Control and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Funding was provided by the Canadian Development Agency through their Regional Biological Control Programme for Conifer Aphids and by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations through their Technical Cooperation Programme TCP/RAF/4451, "Assistance to Management of Leucaena Psyllid".
