PHy plan and roadmap - Flipbook - Page 3
Plant Health Alliance - Together, we can be Plant Healthy
In 2018 the Plant Health Alliance was formed due to a growing awareness of the damage and threats posed by the
introduction and spread of exotic plant pests. The Alliance is a group of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), industry
bodies, government agencies and plant health professionals. All have an interest in safeguarding our natural and cultivated
flora, as well as the sectors that rely on the movement and management of live plant material.
A scheme for plant biosecurity had previously been proposed by Government and pushed for by the trade. In 2020 the
Alliance launched the Plant Healthy Certification Scheme. The Scheme is based on the Alliance owned and publicly available
Plant Health Management Standard. The requirements in the Standard aim to enable the range of live plant supply chain
stakeholders to take a ‘systems approach’ to plant biosecurity. This enables businesses and organisations to establish a suite
of proactive plant biosecurity measures on the sites that they operate from.
It is widely acknowledged that live-plant supply chains can spread new pests and diseases. The Scheme was initially designed
to support nurseries address this issue; however, it was realised that to be effective, all professionals who manage garden
centres and gardens should be included, along with arborists and landscapers who plant and manage our landscapes.
In the period of this plan (2022 - 2025) we aim to strengthen all aspects of the scheme with a view to significantly increasing
uptake and with the sole purpose of stemming the flow and spread of exotic and damaging plant pests in the UK and beyond.
Sir Nicholas Bacon
Chair of the Plant Health Alliance
Front cover - hybrid tea roses – a host of rose rosette virus (GB Priority Pest) – pest not present in the UK