Author Cock M.J.W.

Year of publication 2003

“Biosecurity” in food and agriculture describes the concept and process of managing biological risks associated with food and agriculture (in its broadest sense, i.e. including forestry). Biosecurity is emerging as one of the most important issues facing the international community. There is a growing need for countries to establish biosecurity systems, either to meet obligations under international agreements (for example, in the environmental sector) or to take advantage of opportunities (for example, in the trade sector). In the forestry sector, biosecurity encompasses three main fields of activity: forest protection and phytosanitary issues; naturalization of introduced forestry trees and their impact on ecosystems or individual species; and the release of new genotypes, including genetically modified organisms. Biosecurity is a relatively new concept and its meaning is still evolving: usage varies among different countries and even among different specialist groups. It also presents difficulties when translated into other languages, for example, in Spanish `biosecurity' and `biosafety' cannot be distinguished, while in French biosafety (`biosécurité') is used as the definition for the transboundary movement of living modified organisms under the Cartegena Protocol. To add to the confusion, biosecurity has also been used to describe the organized response to bioterrorism. This book aims to identify threads to forests and forests trees by pests or alien and invasive species, in order to prevent these threads and the widespread of pests’ contamination. It also contains data related to several case studies.