1 Introduction
1. The growth of global trade in plant materials
has led to a marked increase in the volume and diversity of trees,
plants and plant products entering the UK in recent years. This
has led to a higher likelihood of harmful plant pests and pathogens
being introduced into the UK. Disease outbreaks such as Chalara
fraxinea may also be attributable to extreme weather events
which can bring infectious spores into the UK from the continent.
The growing number of disease and pest outbreaks in the UK serves
to underline the reality of these risks. These outbreaks can cause
adverse economic, social and environmental impacts.
2. In October 2011, the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published a Tree Health and Plant
Biosecurity Action Plan, which set out a long-term commitment
to tackle biosecurity threats to Britain's trees and forests.[1]
This commitment gained importance following the discovery of the
fungus Chalara fraxinea in native UK ash trees in 2012.
Defra subsequently published, in March 2013, a Chalara Management
Plan (updating a control strategy published in December 2012).[2]
More recently, Defra has identified safeguarding plant health
as one of its four key priorities and committed to publishing
a new plant health strategy in Spring 2014.
3. Chalara fraxinea (more commonly known as
ash dieback disease) provides an example of the range of effects
that an outbreak of disease can have. Cases of ash dieback disease
were first identified in the UK in saplings in a nursery in Buckinghamshire
in February 2012, and in October 2012 the first signs of the disease
were detected in mature trees in the wider natural environment
in Norfolk and Suffolk.[3]
The outbreak of ash dieback disease has led to (but is not limited
to) the following consequences:
— ash has been lost as a timber tree: the
loss of income and changes required woodland management have been
economically detrimental;
— for private owners, the cost of surveying,
felling and replacing ash trees is high: the overall cost of managing
ash dieback disease for the National Trust is estimated at £15
million;[4]
— losing a large number of ash trees could
reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that is removed from the air,
leaving more greenhouse gas in the atmosphere;[5]
— the environment has been negatively affected:
ash has many associated species and is the sole food-plant for
numerous species of invertebrate; and
— ecosystems and biodiversity levels have
been negatively impacted: nutrients are released from soil and
habitats lost.
Our inquiry
4. In November 2012, in response to the outbreak
of ash dieback disease and the wider failures in UK plant health
protection that the outbreak exposed, we invited written submissions
on Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity. The aim of this inquiry
was to explore whether Defra policies such as the Tree Health
and Plant Biosecurity Action Plan were suitable. We used ash dieback
disease as an archetypal example of an outbreak of disease in
the UK, but we also looked at wider plant health issues and asked
whether there are sufficient resources and adequate management
plans to effectively prevent and manage disease outbreaks.
5. The twenty-nine written submissions and transcripts
of three oral evidence sessions, hearing from representatives
of government, landowners, farmers, trade bodies, wildlife, conservation
and environmental groups are published on our website.[6]
We also submitted written questions to the Secretary of State,
Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP and received a total of five written submissions
from Defra (incorporating input from the Forestry Commission and
the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera)). [7]
We are grateful to all who provided evidence to our inquiry.
1 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,
Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Action Plan, October
2011 Back
2
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Chalara Management Plan,
March 2013 Back
3
Forestry Commission, Chalara Dieback of ash, accessed 20
January 2014 Back
4
Q223 Back
5
University of Edinburgh, Fungus may devastate ash woodlands,
6 May 2013 Back
6
EFRA Committee website, Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity inquiry Back
7
Ibid. Back
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