Pine Wilt Disease: A Worldwide Threat to Forest Ecosystems

Book excerpt: Pine wilt disease (PWD) is unquestionably a major threat to forest ecosystems worldwide. After seriously affecting Eastern Asian countries, the challenge is now in Europe, following its detection in Portugal in 1999 and its subsequent spread. For foresters, these were really very bad news and, in order for adequate action to be taken, scientists had to teach politicians about the seriousness of the problem. That is never an easy task, but it was successfully done at that time, mainly by the continued effort of Professor Manuel Mota. The challenge of having political decisions based on good science is fundamental for the success of any program, but especially in dif?cult situations such as those arising by the introduction of harmful organisms in new ecosystems. The success of the dialogue between science and policy requires intelligent partners from each side, which is not always necessarily the case... Examples of lack of recognition of problems raised by science are unfortunately abundant throughout the history of science. The recent recognition of the efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore with the - bel Prize, and the continued failure in taking appropriate actions by major political players is a dramatic modern example of the dif?culty of this dialogue...