The Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention is in the process of overhauling its website (*www.ippc.int*<http://mail.google.com/mail/www.ippc.int> ).
Our goals include improving the site's organization and making the text more engaging. We would also like to expand the site's overall scope so that it better serves a wider audience (e.g. more information in support of capacity building; more content targeted at researchers and academia; creation of an "ABOUT" layer to provide background information on the IPPC for the general public, students, etc). To help get a sense of what sort of content potential users would like to find on the site, we are circulating a short survey: * https://www.ippc.int/servlet/CDSServlet?class=org.fao.waicent.cds.IPPCsendSurvey *<https://www.ippc.int/servlet/CDSServlet?class=org.fao.waicent.cds.IPPCsendSurvey> Your feedback would be greatly appreciated! (For those of you who may not be familiar with the IPPC, here's a little background: The International Plant Protection Convention is an international treaty relating to plant health, to which 170 governments currently adhere. Contracting parties of the International Plant Protection Convention share the same overall goal: to protect the world's cultivated and natural plant resources from the spread and introduction of plant pests, while minimizing interference with the international movement of goods and people. The contracting parties work towards this goal by cooperating to secure common and effective action to prevent the spread and introduction of plant pests (including insects, pathogens and plants as pests) into endangered areas and to promote appropriate measures for their control. While the main targets of the IPPC are plants and plant products moving in international trade, the IPPC also covers anything else that can act as a vector for the spread of pests of plants, such as containers, soil, used vehicles and machinery, and packaging material. Core activities under the Convention include the development of international standards for phytosanitary measures (ISPMs) for safe movement of plant products, information exchange, and capacity building so that all contracting parties are better able to implement the IPPC and the ISPMs. Presentations on the *IPPC and Invasive Species *given at the 13th meeting of the CBD Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice may also be of interest: * https://www.ippc.int/id/199219?language=en*<https://www.ippc.int/id/199219?language=en> .) Thanks again, and I look forward to hearing your input! Melanie Melanie Bateman International Plant Protection Convention Secretariat, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, AGPP, Room B-703, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy Tel.: +39-06-5705-3071 Fax: +39-06-5705-4819 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: www.ippc.int
