Forest Biosecurity Laws in South-East Asia: A Review

HIGHLIGHTS Currently, countries in South-East Asia have no dedicated biosecurity laws or legislation that focus on the risk and harm associated with forest invasive pests. The challenge is to create a biosecurity policy and implement it across relevant departments, institutes, and plant health groups in the different countries. Transfer of knowledge from countries with well-established biosecurity frameworks will support development of forest biosecurity laws and legislation. Developing technical biosecurity capacity (monitoring, surveillance, and PRA) is critical to support forest biosecurity policies. A regional approach to forest biosecurity law and legislation could be implemented through the formation of a forest biosecurity working group reporting on biosecurity focal points as a sub-committee of the ASEAN Forest Products Industry Club (AFPIC). SUMMARY To ensure the protection of natural and planted forests in South-East Asia, it is vital that the risks posed by invasive and local pests are minimised and that effective mitigation and response plans are in place. To do so, forest biosecurity laws need to be developed to coordinate policy, direct on-ground activities to prepare the region to respond to an incursion and empower relevant agencies to act. In this review, we outline the current laws and legislations relevant to the forestry sector in six ASEAN countries and make suggestions on forest biosecurity laws that could be developed. We put forward general recommendations on how these laws may be developed, with a focus on a regional approach to forest biosecurity. This could be implemented through the formation of a forest biosecurity working group as a sub-committee to the ASEAN Forest Products Industry Club, to promote global safety in invasive pests of native and planted forests of member countries.