The importance of plant health for life on Earth has been acknowledged by the United Nations, which has declared 2020 the International Year of Plant Health under the slogan “Protecting Plants, Protecting Life”. The movement of people and goods around the world helps to spread pests and diseases, with devastating effects for agriculture, forests and natural environments. Under the auspices of the FAO, the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), which has 180 signatories including Portugal, encourages countries to set standards for the international trade in plants and plant products to protect the health of the plants on their territories. In Portugal, the Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary, as the National Plant Protection Authority, is responsible for implementing legislation on phytosanitary control, establishing and coordinating measures to prevent, control and eradicate pests and diseases threatening the country’s plants.
Daktulosphaira vitifoliae
The grape phylloxera is an insect that originated in North America, appearing in Europe for the first time in 1863, in France, where it was most likely imported on infected vines. The insect quickly became established and spread, affecting every winegrowing region in Europe. Portugal was very badly affected: the first official record of the pest dates back to 1871 in the Douro region, where many vines were completely destroyed and vast swathes of the landscape were rendered sterile, leading to financial ruin and depopulation in the worst affected areas. Several methods for fighting the insect were attempted and the most effective proved to be the use of rootstocks from American vines that were resistant to the insect. The practice remains necessary to this day. The phylloxera plague led to the birth of the concept of global plant protection and a convention was signed between five countries (Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Portugal and Switzerland) in Bern in 1881.
Bursaphelenchus xylophilus
The pine wood nematode is considered to be one of the most potentially destructive species for coniferous forests. This microscopic worm is transmitted to trees by an insect
– in Portugal, the pine sawyer beetle. Originating in North America, the pest spread around the world, moving first to Japan in the early 20th century, then to the rest of the Asian continent. In Europe, the nematode was identified for the first time in Continental Portugal in 1999 and has been found more recently on the island of Madeira and in Spain.
Currently, the pine wood nematode is one of the main phytosanitary threats facing our pine forests and its presence has caused a range of plant protection measures to be adopted: monitoring coniferous forests and the insect vector, identifying and removing trees with symptoms of decline, and applying heat treatment to wooden pallets and packaging if they are intended for transportation beyond Portugal or into the buffer zone, a 20-kilometre security strip along the border with Spain.
Ceratitis capitata
Known as the Mediterranean fruit fly, this pest attacks a variety of crops and wild plants, laying its eggs in their fruit. Its larvae cause significant damage and make the affected fruit impossible to sell. Given its widespread presence across Portugal, the insect is also one of the main constraints on exports of Portuguese fruit to third countries. Effective control of this pest is not only essential to guarantee the sustainability of domestic production, as it affects most types of fruit, it is also key to allowing international plant health agreements to be signed so that our fruit can be exported to other countries.
Rhynchophorus ferrugineus
The palm weevil attacks several species of palm trees, causing damage which can lead to the death of these plants without the necessary treatment. Originating in tropical regions in Asia and Oceania, it spread to the Middle East and North Africa in the 1980s and 90s. In 1995, it was detected in Spain, where it was most likely transported on palm trees imported from Egypt. Since then, it has been detected in almost every country in the Mediterranean Basin. In Portugal, the insect was detected for the first time in 2007 in the Algarve, although it has now spread across much of the country’s territory, causing the death of thousands of palm trees and altering the landscape in many places.
