8 - Plant Health, Biosecurity, and Conservation Translocations

Summary

Increased global movement of biological materials, coupled with climate change, and other environmental pressures are leading to increasing threats to plants from pests and pathogens. These pests and pathogens are relevant to plant conservation translocations as a source of translocation failure, and because the translocation itself can lead to pest and pathogen transmission. Many plant conservation translocations are relatively low risk, especially those involving the small-scale local movement of plant material between proximal sites. In contrast, plant translocations that involve movement of large amounts of material, and/or large geographical distances or crossing natural ecological barriers, are intrinsically higher risk. Additional high-risk factors include the potential for pest and pathogen transmission to occur at nursery/propagation facilities, especially if the translocated material is held in close proximity to other plants infected with pests and pathogens and/or material sourced from distant localities. Despite the importance of these issues, plant health risks are often not explicitly considered in plant conservation translocations. To support greater awareness and the effective uptake of appropriate biosecurity steps in plant conservation translocations, there is a pressing need to develop generally applicable best-practice guidelines targeted at translocation practitioners.