A team from the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP), including Sandisiwe Jali, Josias Letaoana, Dr Privilege Makunde and Profs. Irene Barnes and Brett Hurley, together with the Cropwatch Africa team, visited the southern Cape to test and implement protocols to survey young pine stands for pests and pathogens. The field trip was very valuable, resulting in a number of pest/pathogen reports and associated samples collected for the FABI diagnostic clinic, and informing the further development and improvement of the protocols for the surveys.

This forms part of the National Forest Pest and Pathogen surveillance strategy, which aims to establish a coordinated forest pest surveillance strategy, with near real time sharing of information for decision making.  Earlier this year the assessment of young Eucalyptus stands across the Mpumalanga, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, and Eastern Cape provinces was completed. The assessment of young wattle stands is planned for later in the year.

We thank the amazing support of our forest industry partners, who have been instrumental in implementing these initial phases of the national monitoring.