The CERC-FABI Tree Protection Programme (CFTPP), is a cooperative venture programme established between the China Eucalypt Research Centre (CERC) of the Chinese Academy of Forestry in China, and the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. This Programme has arisen from a long term collaboration between the two institutions that was formally established in 2014. CERC is the primary organisation working on eucalypt breeding in China and it plays an essential role in supporting the eucalypt plantation industry in China.

To answer long standing questions regarding host relationships in the important group of Ceratocystis fungi, the CERC-FABI team under Dr ShuaiFei Chen initiated a major inoculation experiment at the CERC nursery in the past week. In the experiment, 65 Ceratocystis isolates were inoculated on 650 seedlings of Eucalyptus, punica, mango and Acacia, as well as on 650 sweet potato tubers.