An International Plant Sentinel Network as an early-warning system; research on future pest threats (IPSN II)

The overall goal of the project ‘An International Plant Sentinel Network as an early-warning system; research on future pest threats (IPSN II)’ was to develop early warning systems for regulated and emerging plant pests and to provide information that can help prevent their introduction and mitigate their impact.

The project focused on three main objectives:

• Enhancing early detection of regulated and emerging pests
• Supporting of Pest Risk Analysis
• Establishing a self-sustainable network of botanic gardens and arboreta to implement the above objectives after the end of IPSN II.

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) coordinated the IPSN II project with funding from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and scientific expertise from Fera Science Ltd. The Euphresco partners included experts from 16 institutions in Europe, Australasia and America representing botanic gardens and arboreta, universities, research institutes and National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPO’s).

The IPSN was promoted by partners at national, regional and global events to botanic gardens and plant health professionals. The network was utilised to address knowledge gaps for a variety of regulated and emerging pests and diseases through a variety of surveys by NPPOs, Regional Plant Protection Organisations (RPPO’s) and Euphresco members. Two national sentinel networks were created during the project in Australia and Belgium and the potential for developing additional national networks was scoped during the project.

Capacity building in botanic gardens and arboreta to support surveillance was a major activity of the project with partners carrying out workshops and training courses related to sentinel research and plant health to encourage monitoring for unknown threats, as well as known.

The IPSN will continue to be co-ordinated by BGCI and funded by Defra.