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When trained control personnel in well-equipped vehicles received radio reports of a Desert Locust outbreak in Mali, the crisis was already underway. It was, in fact, a carefully planned exercise, conducted after months of preparation by the ten member countries of FAO’s Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Western Region (CLCPRO). The simulation is just one of the tools developed by CLCPRO countries, along with field monitoring operations linked to national, regional and global systems to ensure continuous monitoring of locust activity in West and Northwest Africa. Each country’s autonomous National Locust Control Unit has contingency plans in place and maintains stocks of equipment and pesticides to respond quickly. When CLCPRO was established in 2002, few countries had national locust units or self-funded programmes. But as countries have recognised the benefits of such units for their food security and economies, they have made national and regional Desert Locust control a priority in their budgets.
The last major global plague lasted two years, from 2003 to 2005, and expanded from a few thousand hectares to millions of hectares, infesting 20 countries in North Africa and requiring the use of 13 million litres of pesticides. Controlling the plague cost more than half a billion US dollars and caused more than $2.5 billion in harvest losses. The plague eventually eased thanks to control efforts and bad weather, but left behind millions of people with food and livelihood losses, as well as environmental impacts from pesticide use across the region. Today, the likelihood of such a large plague happening again in West and Northwest Africa is much reduced, thanks to the efforts of FAO’s Desert Locust Control Commission for the Western Region (CLCPRO). As one of FAO’s three regional locust control commissions, CLCPRO works with ten countries in the region.
In 2002, FAO established the African Locust Control Centre (ALC), marking the first time that West African countries were united in an FAO Regional Locust Commission. Through FAO’s Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES), ALC launched a preventive control strategy that has proven to be sustainable. The fact that the 2003/05 plague occurred before EMPRES became operational actually confirmed for countries and donors the importance of having a region-wide locust surveillance and control strategy and the capacity to implement and sustain it. In fact, looking at the cost of ALC control activities, the cost of controlling the 2003 plague was equivalent to the cost of 170 years of prevention.
Early warning, early response are the keys to success After the 2003/05 locust infestation was brought under control, CLCPRO, in conjunction with EMPRES, established autonomous locust control teams for early warning and early response to locust infestations. These teams are now in place in national ministries of agriculture in Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Tunisia, and are sustained by the national budget. This takes them out of the political sphere, guaranteeing their continued existence even if ministers change.
The DLCC provides training and equipment to support national locust control officers in surveying desert areas and collecting information on ecological conditions and locust populations. National data are linked to FAO’s global early warning system, the Desert Locust Information Service (DLIS), based in Rome. DLIS analyses data from all countries, as well as satellite imagery, to predict the timing, location and size of locust breeding and migration, providing early warnings to member countries. Thanks to the DLCC’s activities, countries have successfully detected and controlled four locust plagues in West Africa since 2006, without external assistance and covering less than 50 000 hectares.
Countries establish mutually beneficial pesticide exchange programs Many countries in the region have stocks of pesticides to ensure a quick response to any unexpected events. However, they face the risk of stocks going out of date, after which the disposal of toxic substances becomes a problem. Therefore, CLCPRO countries have established a win-win exchange arrangement where countries that have the capacity to maintain stocks share with those that need them. This way, recipient countries receive pesticides without having to pay for storage costs, and countries are less likely to have stocks that expire.
CLCPRO countries received a startling reminder of the importance of regional surveillance and early warning in early 2012, when a locust outbreak occurred on the border of Algeria and Libya, and security issues hampered field surveillance and preventive control operations. As control efforts waned, the locusts formed small and large swarms and migrated south to Mali, Niger and Chad, where security issues again hampered surveillance and control efforts in many areas, putting the entire region on alert.
But even the threat of this escalation shows that the region is far better prepared to deal with emergencies than when the crisis erupted in 2003. Thanks to CLCPRO, national control units have well-trained personnel, appropriate equipment and emergency plans that can be quickly mobilized and put into action.
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