Service d’information sur le criquet pèlerin

Desert Locust Information Service (Rome)

The Desert Locust Information Service (DLIS) is the focal point for all locust and locust-related information that is necessary to operate an early warning system for Desert Locust. DLIS produces monthly situation summaries and forecasts for each country and sends warnings and alerts about potential invasions or other significant developments. DLIS helps to coordinate international response efforts to manage and mitigate the impact of Desert Locust plagues on agriculture and food security.

Locust monitoring and forecaster in DLIS

Since 1978, FAO DLIS has operated an early warning system that monitors weather, ecological conditions, and locust infestations daily across the world. The Locust Monitoring and Forecast Officer must analyze locust, weather and ecological data from affected countries as well as satellite imagery for assessing the locust situation and forecasting the scale, time and location of breeding and migration. FAO had a Senior Locust Forecasting Officer from 1979 to 1989 (Jerry Roffey, UK) followed by Keith Cressman (USA) who developed the current monitoring system and network from 1987 to 2024. The quality of the analysis and precision of the forecasts not only depend on the data but also on the unique insights, methodologies, experiences, and intuition of these experts.

Swiss Centre for Locusts and Migratory Pest in DLIS

In 2023, DLIS was modernized in FAO where its office and technical officers are in a layout that encourages close collaboration and personal interactions. The renovated space incorporates a Group Activity Area with state-of-the-art digital technologies for modern communications to facilitate monitoring, analysis, management, coordination, videoconferencing with partners in the field, display of the current locust and other transboundary plant pest situations in real-time, maps, modern classroom, and a library. Additional workstations will allow the flexibility to train people from different countries and rapidly increase technical staff during emergencies.

The SWARMS geographic information system in DLIS

DLIS uses a custom GIS called SWARMS (Schistocerca Warning and Management System) to manage the large volume of daily data and facilitate analysis and forecasting. SWARMS contains historical data from 1930 to the present and allows for the display of remote sensing imagery and the use of various models to estimate egg and hopper development rates, adult migration trajectories and seasonal forecasts of rainfall and temperature.

The maps collection in DLIS

DLIS houses an extensive collection of maps of varying types and scales that covers some 50 countries or about 32 million sq. km (equivalent to 20% of the Earth's land surface). The maps are used to check location data received from the field. 

The management of data in DLIS

At least one Locust Monitoring and Forecast Officer is responsible for managing all of the data that arrives in DLIS each day. During emergencies, the volume of this data increases dramatically so it is important to have well-established procedures and systems that can effectively and reliably store, query and display the data.

The information received in DLIS

Every piece of information received in DLIS is registered for easy retrieval and archival purposes. The primary and most important sources of information are survey and control reports from affected countries. Each key country has a Locust Information Officer who is responsible for collating, analyzing and transmitting this data to DLIS by email. National Locust Information Officers in each country use a custom GIS called RAMSES which was developed by FAO.

Analyzing the locust situation in DLIS

Survey and control results, observations on environmental conditions and rainfall information are analyzed in conjunction with remote sensing imagery, weather data, and historical reports using the SWARMS GIS. The forecaster looks for changes in locust numbers, behaviour, maturity and their spatial distribution in relation to changes in environmental conditions. This information is compared to past events that may be analogous and takes into consideration rainfall and seasonal forecasts.

Information dissemination in DLIS

DLIS prepares and distributes several products that summarize and forecast the locust situation. Every month, DLIS produces a monthly bulletin and six-week forecast. During periods of increased locust activity, these are supplemented by updates, alerts and briefs. Specific warnings of significant rainfall, locust developments or invasion threats are sent directly by email, WhatsApp and Signal to the relevant country with suggested action to take, when and where. DLIS interact with social media such as Facebook and X/Twitter. All bulletins, updates and alerts are in English, French and Arabic. They are archived in the information section of the FAO Locust-Watch internet where they can be downloaded.

Data archival in DLIS

All reports received in DLIS from affected countries are electronically archived as PDFs every month. DLIS maintains complete archives that date back to the 1950s. These data are available to researchers and other interested parties. Earlier paper archives are housed in the UK that go back to the 1800s. After 75 years of systematic Desert Locust monitoring and collaboration between locust-affected countries and DLIS, today’s process has been revolutionized.

The reference library in DLIS

DLIS also maintains an indexed reference library containing locust and locust-related publications, theses, articles, meeting reports and audio-visual material. The library can be searched via a database. In the past three decades, DLIS has shifted from camels to four-wheel drive vehicles, from telex to email, from map reading to GPS, from narratives to handheld data loggers, from manual plotting to GIS, and weather station reports to satellite-based rainfall estimates and greenness maps.

Desert Locust Information Officers in DLIS

From 2000 to 2020, there was a programme in FAO where the Senior Locust Forecasting Officer at DLIS trained one Desert Locust Information Officer (DLIO) from a country in Africa or Asia for 11 months in the office. A total of 21 officers from Mauritania to India learned about Desert Locust, rainfall, vegetation, ecology, data, GIS, maps, migration, situation, forecast, bulletin, updates and presentations.They discovered things about biology, botany, weather, climate change, satellites, models, databases, and computers. Finally, each DLIO learned about geography, meteorology, different countries and cultures. As a result, when each person went back to their country, many other Desert Locust survey and control officers understood more about the DLIS early warning system. The programme was paid by the FAO Desert Locust Control Committee (DLCC).