Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Plan of Dominica.

The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Plan, implemented under the Emergency Agricultural Livelihoods and Climate Resilience Project (DEALRCP), provides a strategic roadmap for pest management in Dominica. It outlines relevant Acts that guide pest control efforts and details strategies to mitigate the environmental, economic, and social impacts of pests. Moreover, the IPM Plan establishes a framework for addressing pests of economic significance across specific locations or specific pests on a more widespread scale.
The IPM Plan focuses on environmentally sound practices, particularly within the agricultural sector. It offers guidance on employing sensitive pest management strategies and low-toxicity control measures as part of the DEALCRP. Additionally, the plan emphasizes strategic resource allocation for pest management, aiming to achieve effective outcomes. It incorporates mechanisms for monitoring, evaluation, and reporting to assess the impact of implemented strategic actions.
The IPM Plan encompasses all lands under the ownership or control of the Government of Dominica, private companies, and individuals. It outlines management strategies for locally significant pest species, which include both plants and animals. However, the plan does not address the management of domestic animals, non-declared animals, public health pests, marine pests, native nuisance animals, and plants. Additionally, it does not account for pathogens affecting humans and domestic animals.
The objectives of the Pest Management Plan are: (I) to promote and invest in the use of environmentally friendly approaches (such as hygiene, cultural practices, biological methods, or natural controls) for pest management; (II) to effectively monitor pesticide use and pest affecting agricultural productivity; (III) to develop an integrated pest management plan that will be able to combat any outbreak of pest infestation; and (IV) to comply with local and regional standards, laws and regulations of pesticides.
An effective pest and pesticide management process will be achieved by establishing a Safeguard Team to oversee and ensure that the project complies with relevant safeguard policy documents prepared for the Project; raising awareness on the importance of pest and pesticide management among all project actors or participants, including pesticide distributors/resellers, farmers and farm assistants; educating farmers on the benefits of using non pesticides methods of pest control, on the proper handling and use of pesticides, and on the hazards they pose to the farmers and to their families and livestock; encouraging the use of biopesticides or ecologically friendly pest management measures; increasing the amount of natural enemies; taking necessary measures by pesticide operators during the handling and application of pesticides for their protection against contamination; promoting involvement and participation of all relevant stakeholders including water resource, environmental, forestry and fisheries organizations; and tracking and documenting all pest cases and monitoring the effectiveness of the Pest Management Approach.
Furthermore, this Plan addresses the classification of pesticides by their hazards; criteria of the pesticide procurement guidelines; requirements for the importation, licensing, selling, distribution, handling, transportation, storage of pesticides and disposal of pesticide containers; and the impacts of pesticides on human health and the environment.