7.02.07 – Diseases and insects of tropical forest trees

The Working Party covers research on all aspects of pest and diseases of tropical forest trees including pest and diseases in nurseries, forest plantations, natural forests and urban trees. The objectives of our Working Party are to promote interaction and exchange of information between scientists and researchers working on tree pests and diseases in the tropics through Working Party meetings, information postings on the Working Party website and communication via the internet. Due to the nature of tree pests and diseases and the insects pests  and pathogens that cause them we see our Working Party interacting with those dealing with insects that vector fungi and bacteria, those that deal with silivicultural and tree breeding issues and climate change, to name but a few.

We plan to highlight one tropical forest tree pests and diseases every 6  months on the Working Party website so that members are more aware of potential disease threats to tropical forest trees and can be kept up-to-date on current research developments in the tropics. We will also be posting a list of names of researchers and their contacts on this website so as to encourage information exchange among fellow researchers.  We also plan to run a workshop on tropical  pests and diseases in 2012.

Biosecurity: recent and potential incursions of pests and pathogens into new areas; "Host jumps" – many pests and pathogens occur on more than one host and can use "alternative" hosts to enter a country.
Pests and diseases development in Tropics : climate change and  pests and diseases epidemics, adaptation and mitigation.