African nations can better fight invasive forest pests thanks to UN-backed web site

African countries will now be better able to guard against invasive pests that threaten their forests, sometimes from as far afield as North America, thanks to a new United Nations-backed web site launched today to fight a danger that has grown seriously with the increase in trade, travel and transport.

"Until now, African countries lacked effective means to share information on forest-invasive species despite an increase in the spread of pests across Africa," UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) specialist on forest health Gillian Allard said. "The new web site is facilitating the information flow."

The site, created by African specialists at the initiative of the Forest Invasive Species Network for Africa (FISNA), is hosted by FAO. Features include information on new outbreaks of invasive pest species and woody species. It also provides references, publications and other links related to invasive species in Africa, those that are not native to a specific forest ecosystem, whose introduction does or is likely to harm the ecosystem.

Through FISNA, countries are already sharing information on the latest outbreaks of such species. For example, an insect pest, the blue gum chalcid, has recently been discovered in Kenya and Uganda damaging young eucalyptus trees and nursery seedlings. On the web site it is noted that the pest has previously been recorded in Morocco, Iran, Israel and Italy.

Also, since 2001, the giant conifer aphid, a pest native to the eastern United States and Canada, has been recorded damaging pine tree plantations in Malawi. The web site shares information on how this can be controlled. Furthermore it shares information on how the spread of the cypress aphid, which has been harming cypresses and cedars in Africa since 1986, is being controlled.

"Once this regional web site is linked to other existing regional networks on invasive species, it will become much easier to protect African forests from species that transcend national and regional boundaries," Ms. Allard said.