FISNA meetings

Description: The Forestry Invasive Species Network for Africa (FISNA) will hold its regular Executive Committee meeting in February 2009, in Kumasi Ghana. The workshop will involve around 20 FISNA members from all over Africa. The theme of this year's workshop is Managing New Pest Incursions on Africa's Forests. Members will update each other, review and discuss progress made to date, make recommendations on new and emerging forest invasive pests, review and endorse a draft FISNA Charter. The EC members will also use this opportunity to launch the West Africa Node of FISNA. On the final day of the workshop, members will visit various sites in Ghana that are experiencing new forest invasive species invasions. This year's workshop will be fully funded by the USDA Forest Service and will be hosted by the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG).

Description: The FISNA workshop was jointly organized by the Forest Research Institute of Malawi (FRIM) and the host institute Sokoine University of Agriculture (SAU). The USDA Forest Service provided full sponsorship and FAO provided technical support during the preparatory stages and during the workshop. Twenty participants from nine countries were represented at the meeting, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe with participants from FAO and CAB International. All participants are members of the Interim Committee while FRIM in Malawi is the Secretariat of FISNA. The meeting included country briefs on the present status of invasive species and control actions and technical presentations on major pests of concern to Africa, including the woodwasp, Sirex spp. (presented by South Africa) and the blue gum chalcid, Leptocybe invasa (presented by Kenya). A summary was provided of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) invasive species meeting held in Pretoria (23-26 August 2005) and attended by Clement Chilima, FRIM Secretariat. Presentations were made on behalf of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) including background information about the IPPC and detailed information on ISPM No. 15. Guidelines for regulating wood packaging material in international trade. An update of the activities carried out since the inception of the network was presented and the way forward was discussed. A matrix was prepared of the most important and commonly occurring invasive species discussed during the meeting including the country status, i.e. where considered invasive or beneficial (in the case of woody plants). Of those listed, four of the most significant species (two insect pests and two woody tree species) were selected and working groups were established with the task of preparing briefs on status and management measures, for inclusion on the FISNA Web site.

Description: The Forest Invasive Species Network for Africa was created during this Task Force Meeting. Seven African countries - Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia - were represented and the 14 members successfully defined the mandate, objectives and activities of the network.