Report of the APPPC Systems Approach Workshop, 4-8 November 2013, Bangkok, Thailand

APPPC organized an APPPC Systems Approach (SA) Workshop from 4-8 November 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand with financial support from Australia. This meeting constituted work on the third ISPM that the APPC has carried out - ISPM 6, ISPM 15 and now ISPM 14. The ISPM14 is an extremely important standard and members had requested workshops on this. The systems approaches methodology, which uses several elements, is one of the most important options for pest risk management. This workshop drew on the principles of ISPM 14 “The use of integrated measures in a systems approach for pest risk management” to examine the practical implementation of systems approaches in pest management. The workshop focused on the principles of ISPM 14 The options for pest risk management that an SA provides were studied by examining the characteristics of an SA (such as being least trade restrictive, adequately documented, monitored and validated etc) and aspects of the application of measures – including the application of measures at pre-planting, pre-harvest, harvest, post-harvest etc. During the workshop, participants : • Have developed a shared understanding of the implementation of systems approaches in pest risk management, through analysing a number of case studies which illustrate the key issues, and undertaking practical exercises in developing systems approaches. • Identified the practical difficulties of implementation of systems approaches to implement export requirement • Identified further areas of work to assist the implementation of systems approaches. • Identified appropriate support materials, to be developed during 2014/15. Participants proposed a number of suggestions on potential areas as well as reference materials to be considered by next workshop on SA. Participants satisfied with the workshop and wish to have additional opportunity of participation in future workshop on SA.