CABI Blog

Delegates at the International Conference on Environmental Toxicology and Health (ESCON) who met recently in Islamabad, Pakistan.

An entomologist from CABI’s Phytosanitary Risk Management (PRMP) team has participated in the International Conference on Environmental Toxicology and Health (ESCON 2019) held in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Muzammil Farooq, representing the PRMP team, participated in the event – organized by the Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University (CUI), Vehari campus – by giving a presentation entitled ‘Environment Conservation and Next Generation Pest Management Model for Cydia pomenella (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) – Pakistan (Balochistan province) Perspectives.’

Farooq also presented a poster, entitled ‘Aflatoxin Biological Control – An Integrated Environmentally Safe Management Approach’, and shared the success stories of the PRMP team’s interventions regarding the biological control of apple coddling moth in Balochistan province.

Muzammil Farooq presents at ESCON 2019.

The conference, which was attended by over 120 academia staff of different universities of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, KPK, Gilgit Baltistan, Azad and Jammu Kashmir, included five International speakers from China and Saudi Arabia.

A speech was delivered on the outcomes and suggestions of the conference which were based on the following agendas:

• Local wisdom and traditional knowledge which must be evaluated on scientific grounds to tackle the local problems.
• Excessive, over estimation of a single technique or method that may promote secondary problems. Therefore the adoption and integration of multiple methods to mediate the problem is needed.
• Waste is not waste until it is wasted. Therefore reuse, recycle and reduce should be high on our agenda.
• Use of renewable energy resources to avoid the problems like global warming, environmental population and smog.
• To ensure environmentally-sustainable developments are implemented so that the environment and public health can be preserved.

Dr Raheel Qamer (Tamgha-e-Imtiaz), Rector of CUI, delivered a vote of thanks to all the international and national participants of the conference. He showed his appreciation for the efforts of the organizing community including Dr Shahid (principal organizer) and Dr Khair uz Zaman (Director CUI, Vehari Campus).

Dr Yogmei Chen, Dr Renie Dong and Dr Shoujun Yang also extended a vote of thanks on behalf of their teams and highlighted the importance of collaborative work in the future.

ESCON 2019 was a chance to network, share expertise and gratitude for collaborative working towards environmental toxicology and health.

The conference participants also appreciated the PRMP team’s innervations regarding the practical application of ecologically safe management strategy for selected insect pests.

The editorial teams of the journals; Environmental Science and Pollution Research and the Journal of Phytoremediation confirmed that they would publish a special edition based upon the conference outcomes.

Additional information

Find out more about how CABI is working to tackle crop pests in a safe and sustainable way as part of the Phytosanitary Risk Management Programme in Pakistan from the project page.