2454 final report.pdf - Agra CEAS Consulting

Evaluation of the Community Plant Health Regime: Final Report
DG SANCO Evaluation Framework Contract Lot 3 (Food Chain)
4.1.2 Key challenges
EQ 24: In how far is the CPHR suitable to mitigate risks of future challenges, in
particular the control of new HOs reaching or spreading in the Community as a
consequence of climate change?
The challenges posed by globalisation (encompassing the impact of increased trade, transport,
travel and tourism), and climate change effects on plant health in agriculture and forestry have
been highlighted throughout this evaluation. The conference organised under this evaluation
in February 2010 262 focused specifically on this issue, with several presentations highlighting
the new dynamics introduced by globalisation and climate change, and the strong interactions
between these two factors. These challenges are not unique for the EU plant health policy, but
exert a wider impact on countries around the world.
It was generally acknowledged that globalisation is the overriding challenge, with climate
change adding to the complexity and range of potential impacts. But within the debate of
addressing future challenges for plant health it is important to bear in mind that a systemic
approach is needed as plant health relates to ecosystems encompassing a wide range of
components with complex and not always predictable interactions. It was also noted that these
challenges are not unique for the EU plant health policy, but exert a wider impact on policy
approaches for plant health and IAS in countries around the world 263 .
For example, climate change has the potential to accentuate the incidence of natural spread in
Europe both by directly affecting pest incursion and spread, and indirectly by altering
cropping patterns in agriculture and forestry (as discussed in section 3.1.1). Natural spread in
itself is triggered and accentuated by increased trade and/or movement of people (as discussed
in section 3.4).
The evaluation has found that the impacts on plant health of globalisation (via the increase in
interceptions with HOs, particularly from certain new trade pathways), and of climate change
(inter alia via the increased incidence of natural spread and IAS) are becoming more and more
evident in the enlarged EU27, and are only partly addressed by the current plant health policy.
In the general survey, the majority of both MS CAS and stakeholders consider that the CPHR,
as it stands, is only partly suited to mitigate the risks of future challenges as outlined above:
262 A number of presentations on this were made at the Conference organised under the CPHR evaluation:
Modernising the plant health regime in view of globalisation and climate change (23/24 February 2010,
Brussels). All presentations are available at: http://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/strategy/index_en.htm
263 In September 2009, an EPPO Council Colloquium (Angers) had focused on the same subject: Increasing
trade, changing climate, emerging pests: Is the plant health sector prepared?. The US, Canada and Australia
have all re-evaluated their policy response to IAS and plant health to face these challenges (a review of the
current US and Canada approaches is provided in Annex 2.
Food Chain Evaluation Consortium 295