Alien invasive species meetings relevant to tropical Africa

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 International Congress of Entomology is held every four years and is regarded as "the main event" in this field. ICE 2008 will provide a forum for over 2000 scientists, researchers, technicians, government, industry and commercial representatives to discuss applications in the many fields of entomology, to share expertise in their specific fields of interest, and to present their products. The congress will be an international gathering of delegates from many countries in both hemispheres, including the developed and developing world. The Congress objectives are to bring together all those concerned with developments in diverse fields of entomology including researchers and scientists, teachers and educationalists, agrochemical industries, equipment suppliers, manufacturers, editors, computer science, video communications and data bank scientists.

Description: Sirex noctilio represents a growing threat to worldwide conifer forests and forestry. While a great deal of knowledge has been accumulated relating to this damaging insect pest, new invasions around the world are vividly illustrating the fact that aspects of its biology and control are still poorly understood. The time is clearly most opportune to hold an international symposium and workshop to share experiences and condense recent knowledge regarding the Eurasian woodwasp. Hopefully, such a gathering will lead to a substantially increased understanding of S. noctilio and its threat to worldwide forestry. Perhaps more importantly, the aim of a meeting focused on S. noctilio should establish a new trajectory of international collaboration regarding the pest, its biology and its management. Associated with this meeting, there will also be a workshop, which will focus on the management of the Sirex woodwasp invasion in South Africa.

Description: The worldwide spread of invasive organisms, whether insect, pathogen or plant, through international trade is a cause for concern. Indeed, invasive organisms have often featured within IUFRO working party meetings covering a range of different topics (e.g. Population Dynamics, Bark Beetles, etc.). The new Working Party on Alien Invasive Species and International Trade has been established to focus specifically on global forestry issues related to the unwanted international movement of alien invasive species, including fungi, insects, nematodes, and plants. The increasing emphasis on pathways for movement of alien invasive species, especially those associated with packaging wood and nursery stock will provide a broad focus for the work of the WP. This emphasis provides an opportunity to integrate across a range of invasive organisms so that links to other IUFRO Working Parties dealing with insects, pathogens and invasive plants will be a priority.

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.

Description: This workshop reviewed progress in the management of important tree pests in the east, central and southern Africa region. The meeting also developed a charter (Memorandum) for the running and operations of the Tree Pest Management Network for Central East and Southern Africa.

Description: The rapid spread of the leucaena psyllid, Heteropsylla cubana, throughout Asia and the Pacific during the mid-1980s was well-documented. In 1992, this destructive insect pest was detected in East Africa. The purpose of this subregional workshop was to bring together research scientists, forest pest management specialists and foresters from African countries were leucaena psyllid is already established or threatens to become established. The importance of leucaena, the threat posed by the newly introduced leucaena psyllid, and available pest management options were reviewed.