Mar 15, 2013

The Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF) met with a number of European experts on invasive pests and pathogens within the context of the EU funded ISEFOR project, in Florence, 0n 18-19 February.

The project aims at identifying pathways for the introduction of new diseases and pest into the EU. CEPF is a project partner and focuses on the dissemination and exploitation of results.

 

The spread of new diseases in forest ecosystems have been reported at an increasing rate over the last century, e.g. the recent outbreak of Ash dieback in the UK or of the pine wood nematodes in Spain and Portugal. Invasive pests can cause massive economic losses for the forest sector, and for private forest owners in particular.

The reasons for the increasing introduction of new diseases and pests to European forest ecosystems include the changing climatic conditions as well as the intensification of the international trade. Imports by nurseries of plant material from overseas are a possible pathway for the introduction of new diseases.

 

Although many causes for changed disease scenarios are anthropogenic, there has been a certain reluctance to control them by EU legislation. In addition there is a clear lack of understanding of biological processes and the need for certain prevention, mitigation and control measures. The society tends to consider that disturbances are part of the natural life cycle of a forest and should therefore not be managed. Other problems are of economic or political characteristic, such as the belief in free trade or the reluctance towards implementing international control mechanisms.