July 1, 2021

IYPH 2020

The United Nations declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH).

The Year was extended until 1 July 2021 due to the postponement of some key initiatives caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main objective of the IYPH is to raise awareness of the importance and impacts of plant health in addressing issues of global importance, including hunger, poverty, food security, and threats to the environment and economic development. It aims at addressing new and emerging plant health challenges, including the impact of climate change, the significant increase in international trade, the rapid loss of biodiversity, and the new pest pathways such as e-commerce by developing more efficient national, regional and global policies, structures and mechanisms.

Several delegations stated that the IYPH 2020 is an indispensable tool to reach several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Especially the global objective to reach zero hunger was identified as being correlated to good plant health situations. But also the global economic development and poverty alleviation were thought to be positively influenced by plant health and its effects on safe international trade.