Forestry

Scoping for a forest biosecurity network in South East Asia

biosecurity forestry

Overview

This project aimed to assist in protecting the agriculture and fisheries industries, and related prior ACIAR investments, by developing a strong regional network to foresee forest pest threats, develop management strategies, collaborate and share biosecurity knowledge, technologies, and strategies. This project also aimed to lay a foundation for a functional South-East Asia regional biosecurity network.

This was the first step toward the development of a biosecurity network and underpinning research focused on forest biosecurity, ensuring collaborative surveillance, monitoring and information-sharing to enhance biosecurity preparedness across the region.

Countries in the South-East Asian region have experienced significant improvements in their levels of development, along with strong growth in their agriculture and fisheries sectors and the outlook for agriculture is broadly positive.

Expected project outcomes

  • Determining the current biosecurity capacity, knowledge and priorities for stakeholders in the South-East Asia region.
  • Reviewing the regulations laws, trade conventions and treaties for biosecurity in the South-East Asia region.
  • Understanding past and current investment in biosecurity within forestry, horticulture, livestock and agriculture in the SE Asia region (to be used as a baseline for monitoring and evaluation in phase two).
  • Initiating and growing a network delivering coordinated responses and enhanced capability in the region, including bridging the link between forest and agricultural biosecurity institutions.

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