Message from the IPPC Secretary on Overcoming the Difficult Time Imposed by COVID-19

Dear Colleagues of the IPPC Community,

The WHO, yesterday, declared the evolving global COVID-19 outbreak a “pandemic”, an indication that we are in the midst of a situation that none of us has ever experienced before.

To be sure, there is worry and concern, and the IPPC Secretariat wants you all to know that we are hoping for the best, doing everything we can in a positive way in this crisis and wishing the best for all of us. We strongly urge you to take good care of yourselves, your families, your colleagues, and your friends, by taking all recommended preventive and protective measures against COVID-19.

Obviously, this situation has altered the characteristics of the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH) in 2020, but if anything, it raises even more the need to ensure that plants are protected from the ravages of plant pests. Ensuring a supply of fresh and wholesome food is more important than ever. With the challenges of limited travel, access to a safe and stable supply of food is compromised.

As you well know the year 2020 is once a life time opportunity for us to deliver the IYPH. Thus, we recommend you to use every permitted occasion to organize the scheduled activities. We remind you that an IYPH website is available, with hundreds of events and other initiatives being promoted. There you can find links to the IYPH photo contest, communication materials and logos, as well as a new section featuring IYPH friends. Please consider updating your website with an IYPH dedicated page, using the IYPH visual identity, and write to [email protected]. You will be added to the list. Please make use and promote IPPC social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, and help us enhance the IPPC Secretary’s message on IYPH (available in six FAO languages).

The entire IPPC Secretariat is committed to working with all of you in solidarity to make the mission of the IYPH a reality. It will be difficult, it will be a challenge, but if we continue to do our best, we will certainly overcome the COVID-19, and make this year a great success.

We wish you and your families a good health, and all the best.

Kind regards,

Jingyuan Xia

IPPC Secretary

International Plant Protection Convention Secretariat
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Address: Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy
Web: www.fao.org | www.ippc.int