Research Projects

Abstract

Forests cover 1,2 million hectares or 58,4% of Slovenian land. Introduction of alien organisms, harmful to forests and trees, can threaten our forests. Harmful alien organisms can cause economic losses, decrease biotic diversity, and can indirectly endanger human health. International movements of goods and people are major drivers for transporting species to new regions. Additionally, we are facing climate changes and extreme weather phenomena, which influence the stability of ecosystems and thus create more favorable conditions for the stabilization of non-native, alien organisms. Therefore, it is extremely important that an effective early detection system is established, so that in case of findings quarantine pest, damage to the environment, economy, people and animals can be prevented with appropriate phytosanitary measures.

Certain quarantine pests pose a greater risk of introduction into the EU area or to Slovenia, as some of them are already present in neighboring member states. Therefore, it is necessary to properly plan national surveys to determine their presence, study and determine risk activities, risk areas, also with regard to different climate change scenarios for the possibility of introduction of quarantine harmful organisms and the possibility of their spread across the territory of Slovenia. For the efficient and uniform implementation of inspections in the EU, the European Food Safety Agency has developed the RiPEST program (risk-based pest survey tool), which enables the implementation of statistically reliable risk-based surveys, but certain input data are required for this, which are currently still not known/available in Slovenia.
 

Researchers

The phases of the project and their realization

The project is divided into several work packages, whose activities partially overlap in time. Currently, activities for the implementation of work packages 1 and 2 are underway.