IPPC Guides and Training Materials

This e-learning course introduces the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), an international plant health agreement that aims to protect cultivated and wild plants by preventing the introduction and spread of pests. The IPPC sets international standards to harmonize phytosanitary measures and facilitate safe international trade. At the end on the course, learners be able to explain the impact of pests and diseases to the environment, livelihoods and food security and describe the core components and mechanisms of the IPPC.

Approximately 2 hours (4 units; quiz and a certificate for successfully completing the course)

This guide describes the components of phytosanitary capacity evaluation (PCE) and how it may be applied to evaluate current national phytosanitary capacities against the goals of the national plant protection organization (NPPO). It gives guidance on how to use various strategic planning tools to identify strategic issues, priorities that should be addressed, and specific activities to address these priorities. The logical framework approach is introduced as a powerful tool for organizing projects. This document also guides users in the preparation of a realistic budget and a work plan for development projects that will facilitate tracking and can be used to evaluate progress in project implementation. (40 pages)
Phytosanitary system: Phytosanitary Legislation
Reference: Establishing a National Plant Protection Organization

Contracting parties to the IPPC often face broad challenges in securing and prioritizing adequate funding to support their national phytosanitary systems. This Guide is the first step to help contracting parties enhance their capacity to mobilize funds, with a particular focus on building long-term sustainable funding and resource partnerships and targeting areas where there is the greatest need for resources to achieve the greatest impact. This Guide includes basic principles, approaches to resource mobilization, and guidance on identifying potential partners for resource mobilization. (32 pages)
Reference: Phytosanitary Capacity Evaluation (PCE)

This guide provides information to support the establishment, operation and maintenance of plant pest diagnostic laboratories and services and discusses the importance of diagnostics in supporting other key national phytosanitary systems. The guide discusses the operational basis of plant pest laboratories and the hard and soft infrastructure needed to deliver diagnostic services. It also describes laboratory workflows and sample management, provides an overview of the key methods used to detect and identify plant pests and suggests sources of additional information.
(132 pages)
Phytosanitary system: Diagnostics
Related international standards: ISPM 27

This guide offers instructions to editors of the International Phytosanitary Portal (IPP) on how to upload and update National Reporting Obligations (NRO) reports on the IPP and describes CPM-approved procedures for nominating an IPPC Official Contact Point and IPP editor. (72 pages)
IPPC e-learning courses: Surveillance and reporting obligations, National Reporting Obligations
Reference: NRO webpage

This guide describes the principal requirements for establishing a national plant protection organization (NPPO) as the competent and legally responsible body for regulatory plant protection functions, as outlined in the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). It provides an overview of NPPO objectives, national legal frameworks, policy requirements, infrastructure and institutional arrangements, and enforcement. This guide also addresses the key elements and considerations to assist contracting parties to review and upgrade their NPPO with respect to fulfilling the functions outlined by the IPPC. (42 pages)
Phytosanitary system: Phytosanitary legislation
Related IPPC Guides: Operation of a National Plant Protection Organization 

This resource presents a guide to understanding the principal requirements for operating a national plant protection organization (NPPO), as outlined in the International Plant Protection Convention [IPPC Article IV.1], and to protect national plant resources from pests. It focuses on the operational procedures and actions required by an NPPO and suggests an overall strategic framework and outlines the principal areas to consider when operating and managing core programmes. In addition, the guide describes the supporting environment (including the stakeholders) needed by an NPPO to maintain the required level of efficiency, effectiveness, and acceptability of phytosanitary activities. (38 pages)
Phytosanitary system: Phytosanitary Legislation
Reference: Establishing a National Plant Protection Organization, Managing Relationships with Stakeholders

This resource presents a guide to phytosanitary aspects of managing relationships with stakeholders. The main objective of this guide is to provide guidance on the kinds of stakeholder relations that can be established and maintained by national plant protection organizations (NPPOs). It encourages the establishment and development of public–private partnerships and promotes cooperation and coordination among non-phytosanitary public sector stakeholders, such as foreign ministries and authorities for trade, standards, and the environment. (58 pages)
Reference: Operation of a National Plant Protection Organization

This guide focuses on import verification as an aspect of the broader subject of import regulation. It describes the foundation for import verification and provides guidance to national plant protection organizations (NPPOs) on the operation, process, requirements, and pathways of import verification that they should consider. The guide discusses seven key areas including import requirements, the import verification framework, phytosanitary measures for imported consignments, audit and compliance procedures, national legislation, import pathways and non-compliances. (34 pages)
Phytosanitary system: Phytosanitary Import Regulatory System
Related international standards: ISPM 20 , ISPM 45

This guide provides an introduction to the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) and guidance for meeting participants. It explains the central role of CPM meetings, including who may attend CPM meetings and how the meetings are structured. It takes the readers, step by step, through the process of preparing for a CPM meeting and offers best practices and tips to support effective participation in the meeting and follow-up after the meeting. (37 pages)

IPPC e-learning course: Introduction to the IPPC

Webpage: NPPO Orientation to CPM

Reference: International Plant Protection Convention (1997)

This guide is aimed at countries where fall armyworm (FAW) meets the requirements to be regulated as a quarantine pest. The purpose is to help NPPOs to take suitable actions at the proper time against FAW through timely detection and other activities to prevent or slow the spread of the pest and reduce its negative impacts. The guidelines give general information on the distribution and biology of the pest, followed by technical details of what needs to be included in prevention, preparedness, and guidance on developing response plans. (36 pages)
Reference: FAO Global Action for Fall Armyworm (FAW) Control

This guide highlights the importance of establishing and conducting a national plant pest surveillance programme in such a way that provides results that are accurate, credible and contribute to national goals and priorities. It describes different models for national organizational arrangements and surveillance approaches and discusses topics such as national legislation, funding, management, human resources, information management and communication. It also offers guidance on planning and delivering surveillance programmes, including methodologies, data collection, and interaction with stakeholders.
(76 pages)
IPPC e-learning course: Surveillance and reporting obligations
Phytosanitary system: Surveillance
Related international standards: ISPM 6

This guide describes the steps that national plant protection organizations (NPPOs) should follow when determining the status of a pest in an area, starting with identifying the pest and the area under consideration. It provides guidance on gathering and evaluating information, assessing sources of uncertainty, and how to use pest records and other relevant information to determine whether a pest is absent or present in the area and then to select the appropriate pest status category, as described in ISPM 8 (Determination of pest status in an area). The guide also includes several case studies from around the world that highlight various aspects of the pest status determination process. (100 pages)
IPPC e-learning course: Surveillance and reporting obligations
Phytosanitary system: Surveillance
Related international standards: ISPM 8

This guide provides information to support national plant protection organizations (NPPOs) in establishing and maintaining pest free areas (PFA), pest free places (PFPP), pest free production sites (PFPS), and areas of low pest prevalence (ALPP). A decision tree illustrates five general phases of programme development: initiation, feasibility, establishment, maintenance, and market access. The guide identifies common challenges and factors that may influence success, such as budget stability, public outreach, availability of good survey and control tools, and open engagement with stakeholders and trading partners. It also includes several case studies that highlight successful PFA and ALPP programmes from around the world. (39 pages)
Phytosanitary system: Pest free areas and areas of low pest prevalence
Related international standards: ISPM 4, ISPM 10, ISPM 22, ISPM 26, ISPM 29

This IPPC Guidance identifies the key parties involved in the international container supply chains, describes their roles and responsibilities for minimizing visible pest contamination of sea containers and their cargoes, and identifies best practices they may follow to meet that objective. (16 pages)
Phytosanitary system: Sea containers

The purpose of the guide is to support national plant protection organizations (NPPOs) in identifying and engaging with stakeholders, and in developing pest risk communication strategies to enhance phytosanitary decision making and plant health policy development. The guide describes pest risk communication and why it is important. It also covers the main principles of pest risk communication, key concepts and goals, and highlights some of the factors that may influence its success. The guide also describes the factors to consider when selecting the appropriate approaches to use and the practices to adopt when communicating about pest risks. It concludes by providing practical guidance on how to use plant health risk communication effectively. (74 pages)
Reference: Managing Relationships with Stakeholders

This guide presents information to support the establishment and operation of a phytosanitary export certification system. It provides practical guidance to assist national plant protection organizations (NPPOs) in establishing a national phytosanitary export certification system, by applying procedures to ensure credible certification and accountability. This guide also describes the requirements and components of a phytosanitary certification system and provides guidelines for preparing and issuing phytosanitary certificates for export and for re-export. (44 pages)
IPPC e-learning course: Phytosanitary export Certification
Phytosanitary system: Phytosanitary Export Certification System
Related international standards: ISPM 7, ISPM 12

This guide provides information for national plant protection organizations (NPPOs) on managing the phytosanitary risk associated with “in transit” consignments. These are consignments that pass through one or more intermediate countries before arriving in the country of import. In transit consignments pass through a country without being imported, yet they may still pose a phytosanitary risk. This guide provides information to help NPPOs to identify whether the consignment in transit poses a phytosanitary risk and to manage the risk appropriately.
(26 pages)

This guide provides national plant protection organizations (NPPOs) with information and context on phytosanitary aspects of market access negotiations. The primary purpose of this guide is to describe a process that can be followed to gain market access with the least hindrance to trade while preventing the introduction and spread of pests into new areas. (42 pages)
Reference: Systems Approach Online Tools, Pest status guide

This FAO forestry guide is intended to help reduce human-facilitated pest spread and its impacts. It provides easy-to-understand information on ISPMs and the role of forest management practices in implementing phytosanitary standards and facilitating safe trade.

This e-learning course explains the international context for Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) and outlines the pertinent international standards and resources available for pest risk assessment, pest risk management and pest risk communication. The course provides participants with the background knowledge needed to understand the purpose of PRA and helps them to develop the skills required to conduct PRAs within the context of the IPPC framework.
This course consists of two levels of modules; Intermediate level (3 modules) and Advanced level (4 modules)
Phytosanitary system: Pest Risk Analysis
Related international standards: ISPM 2, ISPM 11, ISPM 21

Three international standards for phytosanitary measures (ISPMs) on pest risk analysis (PRA) have been developed and adopted by the Commision on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) : ISPM No. 2 (2007): Framework for pest risk analysis ISPM No. 11 (2004): Pest risk analysis for quarantine pests ISPM No. 21 (2004): Pest risk analysis for regulated non-quarantine pests. To help countries understand and implement these standards, an international advisory group of PRA experts was established to develop a training course and training materials designed to increase countries' understanding of PRA standards and capacity to conduct PRA.

The IPPC Guidelines on Sea Container Surveys provide guidance to national plant protection organizations (NPPOs) on how to inspect and record contamination details in a consistent and harmonized manner when carrying out sea container cleanliness surveys. (25 pages) Phytosanitary system: Sea containers

This course covers essential concepts related to pest surveillance, pest status determination and pest reporting focusing on new detections and emerging pests. It offers practical guidance to strengthen national surveillance systems and surveillance activities to support early pest detection, pest monitoring and pest status determination. It also provides guidance to help NPPOs develop a national system for reporting the occurrence, outbreak and spread of pests. (3-4 hours)

IPPC guides: Surveillance guide
Pest status guide

Phytosanitary system: Surveillance
 Pest reporting

Related international standards:   ISPM 6
  ISPM 8
  ISPM 17

This course offers lessons on the activities of the phytosanitary export certification process targeted at the four key roles of export certification - plant and plant products producer, exporter, export inspector and export supervisor.
- Export certification for producers (3h)
- Export certification for exporters (3h 15m)
- Export certification for export inspectors (2h 45m)
- Export certification for export supervisors (3h 45m)
IPPC Guide: Export Certification
Phytosanitary system: Phytosanitary Export Certification System
Related international standards: ISPM 7, ISPM 12

This course covers essential concepts of pest reporting, with a focus on national reporting systems and obligations. Practical guidance includes what information to exchange, responsibilities, receiving entities, and step-by-step instructions for creating, publishing, and updating pest reports on the International Phytosanitary Portal (IPP).

This course covers essential concepts related to the 13 IPPC national reporting obligations (NROs), classified by the type of report and method of reporting. It also presents step-by-step instructions for IPPC Official contact points and editors of the International Phytosanitary Portal (IPP) about how to create upload and update reports. (1 hour)

IPPC guide: Guide to National Reporting Obligations
Reference:  NRO webpage

The e-Learning course will introduce key concepts on Phytosanitary inspection and plant pests, import verification systems and methodologies for sampling consignments. It will provide practical guidance to assist National Plant Protections organisations (NPPOs) and authorised inspection personnel in conducting an inspection in a safe and efficient manner for specific commodities such as horticultural produce and cut flowers, live plants, tubers and bulbs, seeds, nuts, grains and woods.
Phytosanitary system: Inspection
Related international standards: ISPM 23,

The guide outlines the main components of both generic and pest-specific contingency plans and provides guidance on how NPPOs, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, can effectively organize and allocate resources to eradicate or effectively contain pest outbreaks. The guide also discusses criteria for establishing and maintaining pest freedom, pest reporting and includes several country case studies. (80 pages)
Phytosanitary system: Contingency plans
Related international standards: ISPM 17 (Pest reporting), ISPM 9 (Guidelines for pest eradication programmes)
IPPC Guide: National Reporting Obligations
IPPC e-learning courses: Surveillance and reporting obligations, National Reporting Obligations
Reference: NRO webpage

The guide focuses on emergency preparedness and preventing the introduction and spread of Fusarium TR4. It provides relevant biological and scientific information that should be considered when developing a response plan and includes elements relevant to pest risk analysis, implementing phytosanitary measures, official diagnostics and surveillance. (48 pages)
Phytosanitary system: Contingency plans
Related international standards: ISPM 17 (Pest reporting)
IPPC Guide: National Reporting Obligations
IPPC e-learning courses: Surveillance and reporting obligations, National Reporting Obligations
Reference: NRO webpage

This guide aims to improve understanding of ISPM 15 and support the implementation of this standard. It provides information on approved treatment options for wood packaging material (WPM), applying the ISPM 15 mark, manufacturing, repairing and reusing WPM, import inspection procedures, and phytosanitary actions in response to ISPM 15 non-compliance. It also includes several case studies that highlight the diverse ways that countries have approached some of the challenges associated with implementing ISPM 15. (92 pages)
Phytosanitary system: ISPM 15 Implementation
Related international standards: ISPM 15 (Regulation of wood packaging material in international trade)

The guide highlights some of the key challenges faced by NPPOs in managing the pest risk associated with e-commerce trade and provides practical guidance for improving collaboration with national customs administrations, postal operators, courier services, e-commerce platforms and marketplaces, and the general public. The guide also highlights pre-border and border activities, including risk-based phytosanitary inspection, non-compliance response, and the importance of monitoring regulated articles moving on postal and courier pathways to respond to new technologies and trends. (72 pages)
Phytosanitary system: Phytosanitary system page for e-commerce
Related international standards:ISPM 07 (Phytosanitary certification system), ISPM 12 (Phytosanitary certificates), ISPM 20 (Guidelines for a phytosanitary import regulatory system)
CPM Recommendations:R-05 (Internet trade (e-commerce) in plants and other regulated articles)
IPPC Guides:Export Certification: A guide to export certification for national plant protection organizations, Import Verification: A guide to import verification for national plant protection organizations