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Pest Risk Assessment

Risk assessment frameworks for invasive species

One of the many functions of biosecurity staff in the OTs is that of carrying out risk assessments of new species, pathways and commodities. Staff do not have access to specialist risk assessment teams, and often lack both capacity and confidence to effectively assess risk. Under Darwin Plus project DPLUS074, CABI worked with St Helena and the Falklands to develop appropriate pest risk assessment templates and build capacity in their use. The OT Biosecurity Project built on this experience by rolling-out the resulting outputs to the Caribbean OTs through a training workshop held jointly with CABI in January 2020, together with follow-on help and advice in using the four risk assessment templates developed:
  • PRA type 1: Planned introduction of plants, animal, commodities or other biological material
  • PRA type 2: Planned introduction of a biological control agent
  • PRA type 3: Risk of accidental introduction of an invasive alien species not specifically linked to the planned import of biological material
  • PRA type 4: PRA for alien/invasive species already present in territory
The guidance document and templates for the South Atlantic OTs can be found on the Darwin Plus project page (external link).

The report guidance document and templates for the Caribbean OTs can be found below. The PRA guidance document is complete and contains general guidelines, additional guidance notes for completing each template, pre-application and screening forms, and all four templates. The additional guidance notes, forms, and PRA templates are all available as separate files for ease of downloading and use. All documents are available in editable (Word document) format so that they can be completed, modified or adapted for use in other situations or Territories.

Document Non-editable files Editable files
PRA guidance document for the Caribbean OTs pdf Word
Additional guidance notes pdf Word
Tools and links pdf Word
Pre-application form   Word
Screening form   Word
PRA template 1: Planned introduction of plants, animal, commodities or other biological material   Word
PRA template 2: Planned introduction of a biological control agent   Word
PRA template 3: Risk of accidental introduction of an invasive alien species   Word
PRA template 4: PRA for alien/invasive species already present in territory   Word


Three examples of completed PRA type 3 are provided below, as case studies for how to fill out the template.

Document Non-editable files Editable files
Tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta for Anguilla pdf Word
West Indian Fruit Fly Anastrepha obliqua for TCI pdf Word
Red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus for Cayman Islands pdf Word
Giant African snail Lissachatina fulica pdf Word