IAPPS ONLINE NEWSLETTER – November 2024

The two sessions of the IAPP GB were held during IPPC2024 on July 1 and 3 at the Megaron Conference Center, Athens. The meeting was inaugurated by Secretary General Short Heinrichs by smashing the IAPPS Gavel. This was immediately followed by an online presentation by Baruch who could not attend physically, and which will be reported under the members section.

1 – Secretary General’s Report

Membership

Short has assumed the position of Membership Manager on the resignation of Marilyn Weidner. Membership has significantly increased. Many have joined before the Athens meeting, assuming this was to avail themselves of the Euro 100 discount on IPPC registration for IAPPS members. The IPPC2027 organizers need to promote this discount so that we can repeat this in 2027. Thanks to Srini’s efforts we now have four institutional members with a total of 50 members.

Treasurer’s position

With the resignation of Tom Hunt, who retired from his position at the University of Nebraska in 2023, Shaonpius Mondal, Entomology Department, University of Nebraska has assumed the IAPPS treasurer’s position.

Regional coordinators

Vacancy: With the resignation of Dr. Muniappan the North America Regional Coordinator

position is now vacant. We expect to fill it in 2024.

Role and expectations of Regional Coordinators:

1. Active professionally with many professional contacts
2. Sufficient funding to attend the IPPCs
3. Interested in global plant protection
4. A passion for promoting IAPPS in their Region
5. Active (dues-paying) members
6. A vision as to how they can promote their discipline, institute, and professional advancement via their role as an IAPPS Regional Coordinator
7. Submit at least one article describing activities such as national or regional meetings etc. per year for publication in the IAPPS Newsletter

IPPC attendance: We need to develop, as a Board, a strategy to increase participation in the IPPCs, see also Eris report.

President’s position: After serving as IAPPS President since 2011, Geoff has requested he steps down as President following this meeting but will continue his role as the main editor of the IAPPS website and to continue to contribute to the IAPPS Education and Training section of the website”

2 – IPPC2024 report

Eris mentioned unexpected difficulties in getting presenters for IPPC 2024, due to various reasons. Main one was probably the conflict with other meetings, ICE in Japan was highlighted as presenting a difficult choice for entomologist between IPPC and ICE. This points to the lack of coordination between large societies/associations active in plant health, which will need to be addressed at a more global level. Other reasons were also financial, with some agrochemical companies refraining from supporting plant protection research after the Green Deal in Europe.

However, Eris was overall happy with the attendance, with some 630 participants from 65 countries.

3 – Treasurer report

The total amount in IAPPS account was shared with all the board members. All were notified that there is a CD that earns interests in the US, where IAPPS has its legal entity. Short mentioned that the good financial health of IAPPS was also due to the increase in memberships.

4 – Newsletter editor report

Manu highlighted the increased and steady number of contributions to the IAPPS newsletter over the past 4 years. The minimum submission of one contribution per year was met by most regional representatives, while Nora, Frank and Srini where commended for the highest number of contributions so far.

5 – Baruch Rubin report

Baruch was not able to attend IPPC/GB meeting in person, so he connected online to make a presentation, which spawned to highlight aspects of weed management, bioherbicides, and environmental impact of herbicides. He mentioned that weed science is more represented in agronomy and soil science than in plant protection. Hence, he emphasized on involving more weed scientists in IAPPS/IPPC, e.g., by establishing competitive travel grants for young and

early career scientists. He deplored the paucity of weed science presentations at IPPC2024, and indicated that there might have been some conflicts with other international events in weed science this year. His presentation generated some discussions around ways to better integrate weed science in the next IPPC, e.g. by travel grants from industry, and also having concomitant training courses in weed science.

6 – AIRCA report

Srini talked about AIRCA and the potential for funding early career faculty through them.

7 – Biocontrol industry report

Roma mentioned that Brazil is leading in bio-control effort.

8 – Regional Coordinators report:

Region I: West Europe – Frank evoked that EU aims on reducing pesticide use by 50% by 2030, with Germany aimed at increasing eco-farming acreages. EU research money is divided in three research program areas including climate change. This remains a huge challenge in Northern Europe. Virus vector issues and global expansion of the vectors are also important problems.

Regions III and VII: Middle East & North Africa – Mustapha emphasized on incorporating student awards.

Region IV: West/Central Africa – Souleymane mentioned various workshops in 15 countries for West Africa. He detailed some of the financial challenges and funding issues affecting IAPPS participation throughout Africa. He also mentioned that English language remains one of the major barriers for Francophone students and scientists from West Africa.

Region VII: South Asia – Rajan mentioned some of the successes of IPPC 2019 in Hyderabad, where some 450 posters were presented. To increase the audience of future IPPCs, he proposed a membership promotion plan through mass email. He also suggested to hold industry focused satellite session. He described efforts by Plant Protection Association in India – efforts are ongoing on improvement of bio-pesticide quality.

Region IX: Central Asia – Xueping Zhou highlighted the country report and mentioned which conferences, workshops, and seminars were conducted countrywide.

Region X: North-East Asia – Arie several plant protection events that happened in Japan and were fully mentioned in the last issue of the IAPPS Newsletter. The major conversation was on ICE, 2024 which is set to happen in next month at Koyoto, Japan.

Region XV: South America – Nora talked about funding early career scientists and students for travelling. She also proposed the possibility of having more regular virtual GB meetings, maybe once a year, to discuss arising matters without having to wait until the next IPPC.

9 – IPPC2027 report

Federico presented the New Zealand bid for IPPC 2027 to the IAPPS board. Nick handled the discussions, mainly stemming from GB members asking about the justification on indigenous perspectives for the IPPC theme. There were questions around the scope for involving any indigenous knowledge societies, or to connect to the other stream, such as molecular biologists.

Most board members agreed that the theme should be rephrased, and Nick replied that they will work on that.

10 – FAO report

Fazil represented Shoki Al-Dobai, the new FAO representative on the IAPPS GB. Main discussion points were around the concept of One Health, which he proposed as to include plant

health and plant protection. The was quite some disagreement among GB members about having a blank statement on this, as previous and current experiences have showed that the One Health scene was still dominated by the nexus between human and animal health, relegating plant health to a very minor role.

Because of the similarity between the FAO IPPC (International Plant Protection Convention) and our IAPPS IPPC, Fazil also suggested to change the name of our IPPC to Global Plant Protection to avoid confusions. However, the majority of GB members disagreed with any identity changes, also reflecting the long journey of our IPPC way back in 1946, so the proposal of changing the name was abandoned.

Last remarks

Student and early career scientists awards were proposed once more as priority topics to be addressed by the GB, hopefully during one of the virtual sessions prior to IPPC2027. It was also mentioned that providing attendance certificates for IPPC would be beneficial to students. Finally, Shaonpius volunteered to establish social media (e.g., X and LinkedIn) accounts for IAPPS to share info and the Newsletter. Links to selected reports and presentations will be available on the IAPPS website.

Prof. E. A. “Short” Heinrichs

IAPPS Secretary General

E-mail: [email protected]