Preamble

Many African Governments are signatories of the Internationnal Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). Most of these have also ratified the WTO/SPS agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. However it is unfortunate that many of the phytosanitary inspectors and quarantine officers in AFrican countries are often not in a position to meet the requirements laid down in the respective agreements nor to understand the implications of any phytosanitary decisions taken on agricultural import/export. At present, the lack of information and pratical methods for conducting pest risk anakysis (PRA) leqds to quarantine officers having to make arbitrary decisions on SPS measures. The decision not to import for fear of the unknown pests hampers agricultural development of a country.

The major tool in the implementation of phytosanitary requirements is the availability of pest lists indicating both the A1 (high risk) and the A2 (low risk) pests of a country.

History

Recalling the recommendations of both the 18th and the 19th IAPSC General Assemblies which were held in Pretoria in 1998, and in Bafoussam, Cameroun in 2000 respectively in the domain of quarantine and phytosanitary legislation, the IAPSC with Natural Ressources Institute (NRI), FAO and GTZ were charged with the duty to collect, analyze the African phytosanitary legislation (primary and secondary) and formulate guidelines for the member states for use in harmonizing and updating national legislation. On crucial underlying factor for plant quarantine, pesticide and biosafety regulations is risk analysis. According to the World Trade Organization, risk analysis must be done to justify all import requirements and other phytosanitary measures.

With the aim of implementing this activity, a workshop was convened by the Scientific Secratariat to launch the project called "Harmonization of African Phytosanitary Legislation" (HAPL) between the IAPSC and the Natural Ressources Institute (NRI) of United Kingdom. This project was signed on 28th March 2001 at the Plant Protection Research Institute (PPRI) in South Africa. The project is funded by Department For International Development (DFID).

Activities

Among others, the principal outputs of this project are :
 To prepare a database of African phytosanitary legislation and make it available to IAPSC and other regional plant protection organizations and other interested parties.
 To advise and support phytosanitary legislation in Africa
 It was observed by the 19th GA that the Inter-African Phytosanitary Convention was drafted in 1967 and needed updating. The second aim of the Pretoria workshop was therefore to revisit the Inter-African Phytosanitary Convention and update it in line with current international agreements on agricultural trade.