This manual contains a detailed emergency response plan (ERP) for plant pest incursions for use by Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) as a basis for national emergency response plans and pest-specific ERPs. The initial SPC draft was significantly improved by the participants at an Emergency Response Meeting in Papua New Guinea, in June 2001, who also developed a national ERP. The document is in two parts.

• Part A outlines the management structure and the functions and responsibilities of key players.
• Part B deals with technical processes.

Since every PICT has a different administrative structure, Part A especially needs to be adapted to national needs when PICTs develop their own ERPs. Both countries and SPC need to up-date this document and any other related plan annually. The document should also be reviewed during and after an incursion. The manual describes functions with which SPC may be able to assist (and has already assisted) PICTs, such as:

• direct provision of expertise by SPC staff or identification of expertise;
• taxonomic contacts and funding of identifications;
• search for and provision of technical information;
• supplementary funding of operations;
• use of pesticide stockpile on a replacement basis;

In its function as Secretariat to the Pacific Plant Protection Organisation, SPC also has the duty to inform other countries about incursions in the form of PestAlerts. Apart from preparing and reviewing ERPs, countries need to pay special attention to the following aspects when developing their prepared.   Click  General Emergency Response Plan for Plant Incursion to download.