Climate change and human activities have altered ecosystems, reducing biodiversity and creating new niches where pests can thrive.
Climate change and human activities have altered ecosystems, reducing biodiversity and creating new niches where pests can thrive. At the same time, international travel and trade has tripled in volume in the last decade, and can quickly spread pests and diseases around the world causing damage to native plants and the environment.
United Nations’ International Year of Plant Health (IYPH) for 2020, highlights the impact of plant health on food security and ecosystem functions for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the role that citizens can play to ensure and promote plant health.
Governments, legislators and policymakers, and other actors such us farmers should encourage and adopt the use of methods to help keep plants healthy whilst protecting the environment. In addition, travelers must be careful when taking plants and plant products with them, and more research and innovative practices and technologies are needed to strengthen monitoring and early warning systems to protect plant health and environment.
For more information: http://www.fao.org/plant-health-2020/home/en/