Lesson 1: Introduction to Risk Analysis
Topic 2: Introduction to Pest Risk Analysis
The term “pest risk analysis” (or PRA) was developed by the phytosanitary community to name its unique form of risk analysis. Pest risk analysis has a relatively short history compared to risk analyses in other disciplines. In this topic, you will learn the concepts, theory, and practice of PRA.
Objectives:
- Define pest risk analysis
- Brief history of PRA
- Explain the benefits of PRA to different sectors concerned with plant protection
- Identify who performs pest risk analysis
- Discuss how PRA is used to inform and guide regulatory plant protection decisions
- Describe the ISPMs that address pest risk analysis
What is Pest Risk Analysis?
In Topic 1, you learned that risk is defined as the likelihood of an adverse event and the magnitude of the consequences. Now let’s look at how we can apply this definition in the phytosanitary world. Simply stated, pest risk analysis is the analysis of phytosanitary risks (or risks to plant health). The IPPC’s ISPM No. 5 defines pest risk analysis as
As with other forms of risk analysis, pest risk analysis (or PRA) has three components: pest risk assessment, pest risk management, and pest risk communication. These components will be the subjects of later modules.
The conclusions of a PRA must be clearly linked to the assessment of scientific, economic, and other evidence. The PRA must be transparent; that is, it must document its information sources, explain its methodologies, and describe its assumptions and uncertainties.
Throughout this module and in future modules, the abbreviation PRA will be used only when referring to pest risk analysis.
A Brief History of PRA
The signing of the SPS Agreement in 1995 brought the discipline of risk analysis to the forefront for the phytosanitary community. As you recall from earlier modules, the SPS Agreement specifies that sanitary and phytosanitary measures must be based on international standards or on the assessment of risk.
Plant protection authorities whose countries were members of the WTO were suddenly faced with the potential for challenges from their trading partners unless they could produce a risk analysis that justified their phytosanitary measures, particularly in trade situations. At about the same time, WTO member countries recognized that the standard-setting organizations identified in the SPS Agreement needed to develop international standards specific to risk analysis: the Codex Alimentarius for human health (food safety); the World Organization for Animal Health (or OIE); and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) for plant health. Recall that the Codex and OIE already had a long history of standard setting, but the IPPC had none.
As such, pest risk analysis was born to meet the obligations set forth in the SPS Agreement. PRA has developed under the IPPC and, even today, is relatively young in its evolution and application. This context is crucial to understanding the basic concepts associated with pest risk analysis that will be discussed later in this module.
National Procedures Developed
After adoption of ISPM No. 2, countries wanted to align their national PRA procedures with the guidance provided by the new standard. Although different approaches were consistent with ISPM No. 2, there was considerable variation in the methods used. Countries like the Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States implemented commodity-based approaches to pest risk analysis. Other countries implemented pest-specific approaches to PRA (for example, the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO), the regional organization for plant protection in Europe, implemented a pest-based scheme).
Adopted PRA ISPMs
Four different IPPC standards are specifically related to pest risk analysis:
- ISPM No. 2—Framework for pest risk analysis
- ISPM No. 11—Guidelines for pest risk analysis for quarantine pests, including analysis of environmental risks and living modified organisms
- ISPM No. 14—The use of integrated measures in a systems approach for pest risk management
- ISPM No. 21—Pest risk analysis for regulated non-quarantine pests
Pest risk analysis (PRA) provides a range of benefits and applications for countries, organizations, and decision makers.
Support for Domestic and International Regulatory Decisions
PRA provides technical justification for regulatory decision makers. It informs and guides how they approach
- Domestic activities and decisions
- International decisions concerning trade
National plant protection organizations (NPPOs) are responsible for protecting their nation’s plant resources from harmful pests. Domestically, they can use PRA to:
- Evaluate and prioritize pest programs
- Allocate resources, including money and people
- Prioritize pests for surveillance
- Identify research priorities
- Guide regulatory policies
Furthermore, every trade issue is an import issue for one country and an export issue for another country. PRA is used to justify, review, and sometimes challenge the phytosanitary measures put in place by trading partners.
Benefits to Society
Pest risk analysis fosters technical dialogue, which in turn engenders trust and strengthens linkages in the plant protection community at large. Decision makers become more aware of the importance scientific evidence. Trading partners, stakeholders, and civil society benefit from the focus on science to protect their country from the introduction and spread of new plant pests and diseases.
- PRA and all risk analysis should be science-based, defensible, and transparent.
- PRA provides a range of benefits and applications to countries, organizations, and decision makers.
- PRA was born to meet the obligations set forth in the SPS Agreement.
- PRA has developed under the IPPC and, even today, is relatively young in its evolution and application.
The need for better, faster, and more diverse types of PRA places demands on plant protection services for more analytical support. Larger NPPOs have analytical units, staffed by risk analysts with backgrounds in entomology, plant pathology, agriculture, weed science, ecology, or economics. Yet, it is important to understand that a PRA can be developed by anyone—an academic, a scientist, or a contractor—not necessarily employed by the NPPO. However, if the objective of the PRA is to assist in making any kind of regulatory decision, then the judgments derived from the conclusions of the PRA are the responsibility of the NPPO. Furthermore if the PRA is trade-related, then the decisions on the acceptable level of risk are the responsibility of the NPPO of the importing country.
Pest risk analysis (PRA) was developed by the international phytosanitary community as a systematic method for analyzing risk. PRA is a vital tool that can be utilized by plant health officials at all levels. NPPOs use PRA to inform and guide regulatory decisions for national and international plant protection.
To continue, select Topic 3 from the Topics menu above or click here.