4. Legacy
and
way forward

Reflecting on the key achievements and legacies for the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH) 2020, I am very proud to have been the Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Plant Production and Protection Division, and Secretary of the IPPC during this campaign.

I would like to convey my heartfelt appreciation to all stakeholders who contributed to making the IYPH 2020 a success, and especially to Ralf Lopian, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland, the Chairperson of the IYPH International Steering Committee. Without his vision and leadership, the multilateral efforts to declare the International Year of Plant Health in 2020 may never have come to fruition. Six years in the making and despite a global pandemic, he led and championed international action to extend the IYPH by six months into 2021, and reaped the fruitful success of global advocacy in favour of plant health awareness.

The achievements of the IYPH were possible thanks to strong support from countries, as well as from relevant private-sector stakeholders, who played a prominent role in the IYPH International Steering Committee, and from the celebrity IYPH advocates. Academia and research also played a fundamental role in the success of the Year, contributing to the publication of the Scientific review of the Impact of Climate Change on Plant Pests: A global challenge to prevent and mitigate plant pest risks in agriculture, forestry and ecosystems. Successful legacies of the IYPH also include the art, drawing, photography and video competitions for civil society and the Youth Declaration on Plant Health. It is not possible to envisage the IYPH without the involvement of younger generations. Consequently, the IPPC Secretariat convened youth groups from around the world to develop a Youth Declaration on Plant Health in order to build on the legacy of the IYPH.

I am grateful to FAO and the IPPC community for the extremely enthusiastic support, both in terms of financial resources and through their hard work and dedication, which made a wide variety of advocacy initiatives possible.

The closure of IYPH should not be seen as the end, but rather the beginning of continuous, ongoing awareness of plant health issues. Efforts are underway to have the United Nations declare an official International Day of Plant Health, to be commemorated yearly on 12 May.

My sincere gratitude to the millions of social media users who engaged with the invaluable work of IYPH champions, communicators, stakeholders, planners, organizers and teams that successfully achieved global awareness of plant health, which is crucial to feeding and clothing the world and meeting FAO SDGs.

Jingyuan Xia,
Director of FAO Plant Production and Protection Division