Utilizing Emerging information technologies to improve communication and meet the IPM information needs of forestry/agroforestry practitioners in Africa

G. Keith Douce, Associate Professor and Extension Entomologist, The University of Georgia, Tifton, GA 31793 USA
James D. Ward, Forest Entomologist and International Advisor, USDA Forest Service, Region 8, USDA Forest Service, Atlanta, Georgia 30367 USA
Joe Mwangi, Director Forest Health Centre, and Professor, Moi University, Nairobi, Kenya
David J. Moorhead, Associate Professor and Extension Forester, The University of Georgia, Tifton, GA 31793 USA

Paper Presented at:  The Integrated Pest Management Communications Workshop for Eastern/Southern Africa Held At The International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE),  Nairobi, Kenya - March 16, 1998
The Workshop Website is: http://ipm-www.ento.vt.edu:8000/ail/ipmcw/intro.html

I.  Situation

        We realize that many Africans do not have reliable, or in many cases any direct access to the World Wide Web (WWW). We also realize that there is severe environmental degradation, deforestation and economic stress that are caused, in part by population pressures.  There is, in general, inadequate management of forest and agroforest resources and a relatively poor understanding of the complex issues dealing with management of these forest resources, particularly with respect to the impact, or potential impact, of both indigenous and introduced pests.  Integrated pest management (IPM) holds great promise in assisting Africans to manage these forest / agroforest resources.  IPM is a knowledgerich system. Farmers and managers, and those that support them must have ready and reliable access to quality information on a timely basis.  Additionally, timely and reliable communications among and between practitioners, intermediaries and users is paramount in importance for effective IPM implementation (Muhoho 1991, Odhiambo 1991).
        We believe that existing and evolving electronic technologies, including the World Wide Web (WWW) can be effectively used to assist in implementing the concepts and practice of IPM in forest and agroforestry systems in Africa. Individual IPM practitioners, intermediaries and/or users do not necessarily require direct access to the WWW to use WWWdelivered materials.  Selected/desired materials can be acquired by a colleague, duplicated and provided to users without direct Web access as printed or electronic documents.
        Implementation of alternative, unfamiliar and new technologies such as IPM can be facilitated when individuals involved in producing and managing trees have a clear understanding of the production system and possible ecosystem stresses, including insects and disease organisms, in which the trees and shrubs are grown.  Not only is it imperative that insects and disease organism and their impacts be correctly identified, but that their potential impact on hosts and other aspects of the ecosystem be understood as well.  We also believe that WWWdelivered materials provides an opportunity to include quality, color pictures that can help practitioners and managers to correctly identify organisms and make appropriate management decisions.  Of paramount importance when acquiring and delivering IPM information, is to insure that only credible, accurate, and well referenced information is made available to users.  The quality control issue is an extremely important one that is very time consuming and difficult to implement and maintain.

II.  Proposed action

        We propose to assist in the development and implementation of a framework that will further the evolution and implementation of forest and agroforestry IPM in eastern and southern Africa.  We propose to build in concert with the existing forest IPM activity groups such as the Tree Pest Management Network and the Centre of Forest Health, this framework with the objectives of:  1) improving communications among and between members/practitioners, 2) providing a focal point for communication of IPM activities through delivery and access to appropriate information, 3) coordinating the development of specific (but brief) IPM materials that include quality pictures, and 4) utilize evolving electronic technologies to implement and/or deliver these materials and services to African IPM practitioners, intermediaries and users.

III.  Background

        The Need For Food and Fiber:  Deforestation, soil fertility depletion, poor management practices, and forest pests seriously affect the capacity of the land to produce forest and agricultural products needed by the rapidly expanding African population.  Currently more than 90 percent of the domestic energy use in East Africa is from wood provided by industrial/commercial forests and agroforestry plantings.  Without the food and wood provided by agroforestry and industrial/commercial plantations, the human needs for food and fiber would further stress the already severely stressed indigenous forests, further threatening environmental quality, water quality, biodiversity, wildlife and human habitation (Weiss 1991).
        Agroforestry is a collective name for land use systems and technologies in which woody and other perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately combined on the same land management unit with herbaceous crops and/or animals, either in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence.  In agroforestry systems there are both ecological and economic interactions among the different components (Mulofwa 1994).
        Pest Impact:  For many years the forests in Africa were not seriously affected by damaging pests.  However, in recent years severe losses have been caused by the accidental introduction of exotic pests such as the cypress aphid, Cinara cupressi (Buckton); the black pine aphid, C. cronartii Tissot and Pepper; the pine woolly aphid, Pineus boerneri Annand; and the leucaena psyllid, Heterosophylla cubana.  When these insect pests arrived their impact was especially severe due to the absence of natural enemies and the weakened condition of their host trees caused by drought and poor forest management practices.  Both forest plantations and agroforestry plantings have been devastated in some areas (Ciesla 1994, Murphy 1997).
        Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in the forest context can be defined as the maintenance of destructive agents, including insects, at tolerable levels by the planned use of a variety of preventive, suppressive, or regulatory tactics and strategies that are ecologically and economically efficient and socially acceptable.  It is implicit that the actions taken are fully integrated into the total resource management process  in both planning and operation.  Pest management, therefore, must be geared to the life span of the tree crop as a minimum, and to a longer time span where the resource planning horizon requires (Waters 1974).  Integrated pest management (IPM) is an interdisciplinary approach to reducing crop losses through the use, by farmers, or optimum mixes of pest control techniques.  It combines the aims of agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability and cost effectiveness (IPMForum, 1998).  With its emphasis on making the best use of local and human resources, IPM encourages, wherever appropriate, the use of natural control mechanisms (for instance pest predators, parasites, resistant germplasm) and "traditional" pest management techniques used by farmers (Weiss 1991).
        Application of IPM tactics to reduce the impact of forest pests requires considerable information which has not been available in Africa.  The need for increased information and communication on IPM throughout Africa has been documented in several workshops and conferences held during the 90's (Anonymous 1997, Murphy 1997).  Additionally, workshops and conferences such as The International Consultative Meeting of Forestry Directors and Policy Makers held in Kenya in 1995 (Allard, Murphy, Ciesla and Mbagathi 1995) and the 1996 meeting in which the Tree Pest Management Network for Central, Eastern and Southern Africa was formed (Anonymous 1997, Allard and Odera 1994) have emphasized the need for regional cooperation in training, research, quarantine services, exchange of technical expertise and information.

IV.  IPM Implementation Impediments:

Application of information technologies can reduce the limitations to implementing IPM in eastern and southern Africa that results from:

1. lack of communication and coordination between professionals and intermediaries both within and between countries;
2. limited availability of quality, synoptic information about forestry, forest insects and diseases and forest practices specific to eastern and southern Africa;
3. fragmentation of and difficulty in obtaining the forest IPM resources that are available;
4. the inability to obtain and modify the available information to suit the needs of practitioners and  users;
5. the lack of quality images (pictures) relating to these forest issues for use in illustrating IPM materials.  This is particularly true for insects and disease organisms [Quality pictures are, in our opinion, extremely important additions to educational materials to insure that correct identifications are made and that appropriate management tactics are implemented (Douce, et al. 1997).];
6. timely acquisition of printed materials is often limited by: costs, physical availability and distribution issues;
7. limited ability to locate, distribute and deliver needed information to educators, intermediaries and users on a timely basis;
8. the lack of funding to implement information, communication and coordination of IPM activities.

V.  Bugwood  Africa World Wide Web Site

        This web site was constructed as a demonstration site for viewing by attendees at the African Integrated Pest Management Communications Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya on March 16, 1998.  This site is being designed and proposed by personnel associated with The Entomology and Forest Resources Digital Information Work Group at The University of Georgia, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tifton, Georgia (USA) in cooperation with Forest Health Protection Units of the USDA Forest Service and the Forest Health Centre, Nairobi, Kenya.  Bugwood  Africa will be a sister site of the Bugwood  USA site:

http://www.bugwood.caes.uga.edu/

        The site visually demonstrates what we view as possible applications of existing and evolving electronic technologies to improve communications, and support implementation and utilization of Integrated Pest Management in agroforestry and forestry in eastern and southern Africa.

Bugwood  Africa is partitioned into several sections to address some of the impediments to forest/agroforestry IPM implementation identified above.

In the Newsboard section we propose to develop and implement a WWWbased newsboard/information exchange system to provide posting of communications and responses by registered members.

In the Fact Sheet section we intend to provide a consolidated set of concise, factual information summaries dealing with insects, diseases, host selection and other aspects of forest management appropriate to the areas of concern.  We propose to compile these fact sheets by developing partnerships with agencies which have already developed and published these information sheets.  However, it will be necessary to write/develop new ones as well.  We intend to modify the format and layouts of, and implement the existing fact sheets to be consistent in format and to include citable references.  Additionally, we feel that it is imperative that quality, color pictures must be incorporated into the fact sheets in addition to the line drawings contained in some of them to enhance the information content and utility of these sheets for identification purposes.  Notice that we provide fact sheets in dual formats, one for onscreen viewing in hypertext markup language (HTML) and one version for quality printing as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files.  Additionally, we feel that it is important that, when appropriate and possible, to provide multiple language versions of the fact sheets (currently, English, French and Swahili).  Currently, we have loaded a few example sheets following this format.

In the Reference section we currently outline:

1. a glossary containing the definitions and terminology used throughout this site and in common use in forestry and agroforestry across Africa;
2. selected publications and reports appropriate to IPM implementation in Africa; and
3. a listing of ongoing or recently completed forest/agroforestry IPM projects in Africa.

When implemented, this section will also contain detailed definitions of IPM in the context of African forestry and agroforestry, as well as descriptions of the methodology and techniques that can be used (predators, parasites, resistant germplasm, timing, cultural, etc.).

The Contact section will contain information about:

1. Bugwood  Africa Principal Contacts;
2. a listing of IPM Service Providers such as identification and library services, training materials, workshops, and material and equipment supplier addresses and contact information;
3. contact information for international, regional and consulting services that are multinational in scope; and
4. a countrybycountry governmental organizational contact list of forest IPM information and service providers.

The Links section, will like many other sites, contain a listing of what we feel are appropriate and complimentary links to other World Wide Web sites.   These links will contain sites specific to IPM, forestry as well as demographics, communications, etc. as both references and starting points for  more research.

VI.  Future

Other aspects of information technology that we would like to implement are:

1. a database containing a range of uses and characteristics of the many tree and shrub species available that would be searchable by usage, environmental constraints, etc.;
2. either link to or duplicate ecotype, rainfall and other maps of interest that could be used in conjunction to the searchable database listed above;
3. a database that would allow users to lookup and obtain alternate names for the insect, disease, tree or shrub species of interest (e.g. scientific names to local or alternate names used for the species of interest);
4. an image database system for locating, documenting and accessing archived, highquality images that will be maintained in The Entomology and Forest Resources Digital Information Work Group archives.  This would allow for not only documentation and identification of the images, but also access to them for use in a large variety of potential applications;
5. for computer users without online Web access, the development and packaging of Bugwood  Africa as an offline browser; and
6. use of other digital information technologies such as video presentations that can be delivered over the WWW or by CDROM.

VII.  Background Information Available on the World Wide Web

        Listed below are a few WWW sites that we found to provide useful information about several topics that we discussed in this presentation.  We recognize that these are by no means comprehensive, but we thought that you might find them useful.

Overview of information on Integrated Pest Management (All of these sites have extensive IPM WWW links:  See those links for more sites).

IPMEurope, the European Group for Integrated Pest Management: 
http://www.nri.org/IPMEurope/homepage.htm

IPMForum, Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR):
http://www.nri.org:80/IPMForum/index.htm

Consortium for International Crop Protection: 
http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/cicp/cicp.html

National Integrated Pest Management Network (NIPMN): 
http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/cipm/

USAID's AfricaLink: 
http://www.info.usaid.gov/regions/afr/alnk/

Africa IPM Link: 
http://ipm-www.ento.vt.edu:8000/ail/

CAB INTERNATIONAL (CABI): 
http://www.cabi.org/aboutcab/aboutcab.htm

Overview of information about Forestry and Agroforestry

USDA Forest Service: 
http://www.fs.fed.us/

USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Protection (FHP), Southern Region:
http://www.emapfhm.gov/fhp/hosf/hosfhome.htm

Extension Forest Resources, The University of Georgia (USA): 
http://www.forestry.uga.edu/

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) forestry homepage:
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/FORESTRY/forestry.htm

Forests, Trees & People Programme in Anglophone Africa: 
http://wwwtrees.slu.se/fan/eaftp.htm

The International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF): 
http://www.cgiar.org/icraf/I>

Information about the electronic communications infrastructure status and developmental activities.

USAID Leland Initiative: Africa GII Gateway: 
http://www.info.usaid.gov/regions/afr/leland/

Morocco Trade and Development Services, S.A. Assisting in implementation of Leland Initiative in Africa:
http://www3.mtds.com/english/consult/leland/inprogress.html

African Connectivity, Problems, Solutions and Actions: 
http://www.nsrc.org/AFRICA/africa.html

International effort to empower subSaharan African communities with information and communication technologies:
http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/acacia_e.htm

African countries internet connectivity  map: 
http://demiurge.wn.apc.org:80/africa/afrmain.gif

International Email accessibility  Africa: 
http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/misc/bymap/africa.html

For a wide range of information about Africa, visit:

Africa Online: 
http://www.africaonline.com/

VIII.  Literature Cited

Allard, G. B. and J. Odera.  1994.  Concept documentation for the formation of an eastern and southern Africa forest pest management network.  Pages 210213 in Proceedings of Workshop Sponsored by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:  On Leucaena psyllid: a threat to agroforestry in Africa.  DaresSalaam, United Republic of Tanzania, 1014 October, 1994.

Allard, G. B., S. T. Murphy, W. M. Ciesla and S. M. Mbagathi.  1995.   Formulation of an African Forest Pest Management Network.  Workshop Proceedings, Maguga, Kenya, April 2428, 1995.  Rome, FAO.  82pp.

Anonymous.  1997.  Concept Note:  Establishment of the Tree Pest Management Network for Central, Eastern and Southern Africa.  Prepared by:  Kenyan Forest Research Institute, Muguga, Kenya.  5pp.

BekeleTesemma, A. with A. Birnie and Tengnäs.  1993.  Useful Trees and Shrubs for Ethiopia:  Identification, Propagation and Management for Agricultural and Pastoral Communities.  Technical Handbook No. 5. Regional Soil Conservation Unit (RSCU), Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA), Embassy of Sweden, Nairobi, Kenya.

Ciesla, W. M.  1994.  Worldwide introductions of forest pests:   An update.  Pages 1123 in Proceedings of Workshop Sponsored by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:  On Leucaena psyllid: a threat to agroforestry in Africa.  DaresSalaam, United Republic of Tanzania, 1014 October, 1994.

Douce, G. K., D. J. Moorhead and B. T. Watson.  1997.  Use of CDROMs to provide a repertoire of forest IPM digital information to clientele and user groups.  Pages 219221 in R. Beck (ed.) Extension Publication No. 1.  Proceedings International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) Working Party S6.0603  Extension:  Approaches to extension in forestry:  Experiences and future developments, Symposium Sept. 30 Oct. 4, 1996, Freising, Germany.  456pp.  [also on:  http://www.bugwood.caes.uga.edu/html/germany_paper.html]

IPMForum.  1998.  What is IPM? http://www.nri.org:80/IPMForum/whatis.htm

Muhoho, G. K. 1991.  Opening address.  Pages 79 in Ciesla, W. M., J. Odera and M .J. W. Cock (Eds.).  Proceedings Workshop on Exotic aphid pest of conifers:  A crisis in African forestry.  Sponsored by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, Muguga, Kenya. 36 June 1991.

Mulofwa, J. with S. Simute and B. Tengnäs.  1994.  Agroforestry: Manual for Extension Workers in southern Province, Zambia. Technical Handbook No. 4. Regional Soil Conservation Unit (RSCU), Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA), Embassy of Sweden, Nairobi, Kenya.

Murphy, S. T.  1997.  Protecting Africa's trees:  status and actions for pest management in African forestry.  Pages 167172 in (English) Proceedings XI World Forestry Congress.  Vol. 1 (Forests and tree resources), topic 5 (Protecting forests against pests and diseases, air pollution and decline).  Downloaded from: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/FORESTRY/wforcong/PUBLI/V1/T5E/2.HTM

Odhiambo, T. R.  1991.  The philosophy, perspective and goal of the international workshop on exotic aphid pests of conifers in African forests.  Keynote address.  Pages 1017 in Ciesla, W. M., J. Odera and M. J. W. Cock (Eds.) in Proceedings Workshop on Exotic aphid pest of conifers:  A crisis in African forestry.   Sponsored by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, Muguga, Kenya. 36 June 1991.

Waters, W. E.  1974.  Systems approach to managing pine bark beetles in Payne, T. L., R. N. Coulson, and R. C. Thatcher (Eds.).  Southern Pine Beetle Symposium. Proceedings of Symposium, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station. Texas. USA.

Weiss, M. J. 1991.  Compatibility of tactics:  An overview.   Pages 133135 in Ciesla, W. M., J. Odera and M. J. W. Cock (Eds.)  Proceedings Workshop on Exotic aphid pest of conifers:  A crisis in African forestry.  Sponsored by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, Muguga, Kenya.  36 June 1991.