Prevention

Once they become established pests and diseases can have a negative impact on the environment, agriculture, economy or human well being, particularly if they reach high abundance or prevalence. Attempts to eradicate or control established pests and diseases is expensive and labour intensive. Frequently these attempts are unsuccessful.

Prevention is always better than having to deal with a problem pest or disease after it has arrived in a new country or area.

This section describes ways that to prevent the spread of pests and diseases. Often this means people working together to be aware of the possible problems and how they are spread.

Information on preventing specific pests and diseases can be found in the individual pages in the Coconut pests & diseases section.

Most importantly, the International Guidelines for transfer of coconut germplasm should be strictly followed to prevent pests and diseases being moved to new locations.

in this section: Practical prevention : Pest and disease distributions : Prevention of outbreaks : Biosecurity processes: Information sources and further reading

Practical prevention

For all pests and diseases, basic and simple biosecurity actions can save a lot of time, effort and money. These actions include controls on movement and surveillance. Everyone can take part in practical prevention.

Key to prevention is getting everyone in the community and visitors to understand the important part they play in prevention of pests and diseases.

Pest and disease distributions

Knowing which pests and diseases are present in trading partner countries helps identify risks. We have collated a distribution database of pests and diseases of coconut (derived from information on the CABI Invasive Species Compendium).

Prevention of outbreaks

The main audience for the sub-section of the toolkit on prevention of outbreaks is farmers.

Sanitation and plant health are important to prevent outbreaks of pests and diseases. Extreme weather events can promote favourable conditions for disease outbreaks and transport pests to new areas.

Biosecurity processes

The biosecurity processes sub-section outlines more formalised biosecurity processes that are undertaken internationally.

The main audience for this sub-section of the toolkit are biosecurity / quarantine officers. 

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Information sources and further reading 

COGENT. 2018. Darwin Initiative "Upgrading and broadening the new South-Pacific International Coconut Genebank". [ONLINE]

EPPO. 2018. EPPO Global Database. [ONLINE]

Faleiro et al. 2016. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) of Palm Pests. Integrated Pest Management in the Tropics, pp. 439-497

FAO. 2018. Adopted Standards (ISPMs). [ONLINE]

Frison, Putter, Diekmann. 1993. FAO/IBPGR Technical Guidelines for the Safe Movement of Coconut Germplasm. FAO and IBPGR, p.1-48.

PIAT. 2018. The Pacific Invasive Ant Toolkit: preventing ant problems. [ONLINE]

SPREP / SPC. 2009. The SPREP / SPC Guidelines for Invasive Species Management in the Pacific. [ONLINE]

World Trade Organisation. 1998. Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures ("SPS Agreement"). [ONLINE]