This Information Sheet on locusts in Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) presents a shared vision for the next future, as identified by CCA countries jointly with FAO. Indeed, with the critical challenge to ensure the sustainability of national and regional locust management in Caucasus and Central Asia, three main directions have been identified for the coming years: towards long-term regional cooperation on locusts – thanks to the identification of a sustainable regional mechanism; towards prevention and risk disaster approaches – through improved monitoring of locust population dynamics, allowing more accurate forecast and thus early warning and early reaction; and towards further strengthening of national capacities on locust management. The Information Sheet was produced by the FAO “Locusts and Transboundary Plant Pests and Diseases” Team (AGPMM), in the framework of the Food Chain Crisis (FFC)-Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES).

The last and tenth annual Workshop on Locusts in CCA was successfully held on 19-23 November 2018 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to the benefit of the ten participating countries in the FAO “Programme to improve national and regional locust management in the Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA)”. This workshop allowed discussing: lessons learnt from the 2018 national anti-locust campaigns and preparation of the next ones; implementation of the Programme in 2018 and the annual work plan for 2019; as well as a number of technical issues related to locust management, such as the latest developments regarding the Geographical Information System (GIS) entitled “Caucasus and Central Asia Locust Management System” (CCALM) and risk reduction associated with locust control operations. It also allowed addressing resource mobilization for the coming years of the Programme as well as a very important topic: the identification of a sustainable mechanism for long-term regional cooperation on locusts in CCA. This workshop was co-funded by the by Japan/Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Turkey (under the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme – FTPP) and FAO (under its Regular Programme).

This calendar provides some practical advice on safety measures to be adopted by local populations, farmers, shepherds, beekeepers and municipalities before, during and after locust control operations: as long as conventional chemical insecticides are used, precautions should be taken to minimize adverse effects on human health and the environment. Beyond English and Russian, the calendar is available in Farsi, Kyrgyz and Dari. It was despatched, mainly by the national services in charge of locust management, to local populations in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan during the 2018 locust campaigns. The calendar was realized by FAO with financial support from Japan/ Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as well as FAO Regular Programme.

The Information Sheet on locust management in Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) provides an overview on the main results achieved by the “Programme to improve national and regional locust management in CCA” since its start. It also introduces the way forward to the Programme, based on common objectives for the coming years. Overall, the Programme relies to the key concepts of the locust preventive control strategy consisting of timely monitoring of locust habitats and populations; early warning and subsequent early reaction indeed lead to reduced damage on crops and rangelands, reduced negative impact of control operations on human health and the environment due to less use of chemicals and reduced costs. The Information Sheet was produced in the framework of the Food Chain Crisis (FFC)-Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES).