The first joint symposium of the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP) and the Forest Molecular Genetics Programme (FMG) - Eucalyptus and Pine Pathogen Interactions (EPPI) programme was hosted at the Future Africa campus from 9-11 March with the theme “Partnerships for sustainable and productive plantation forestry”. This historic meeting has combined the annual symposia of the two research groups for the first time into a single joint event covering research on insect pests, pathogens and the molecular genetics of plantation trees in South Africa. This was also the 37^th annual meeting of the TPCP, which was the anchor research programme leading to the establishment of FABI in 1998. The symposium attracted over 300 registrations from industry partners, government ministries, academia and students. The symposium drew visitors from Brazil, Canada, Colombia, USA and Poland with three foreign and four local universities as well as two foreign government research institutes represented, testament to FABI’s strong global collaborative research network.

Invited speakers included Prof. Jim Leebens-Mack (University of Georgia, USA), Prof. Bill Hammond (University of Florida, USA), Dr Aaron Weed (National Parks Service, USA), Dr Joey Tanney (Natural Resources, Canada), Prof. David Drew (Stellenbosch University), Prof. Yolandi Ernst (University of the Witwatersrand), Prof. Martin Hill (Rhodes University), Dr Ilaria Germishuizen (ICFR), Dr Jaco-Pierre van der Merwe (York Timbers) and Giovanni Sale (Sappi).

The TPCP Symposium was opened by the University of Pretoria’s Vice Chancellor and Principal, Prof. Frances Petersen who described FABI as a globally recognised centre of excellence broadly focussed on the health of plants. Sappi’s Head of Sustainability, Giovanni Sale presented a talk on how climate change is shaping industry’s growth and survival. 

This year’s symposium also celebrated the opening of the FABI INSPIRE (Innovation Africa Stress Physiology & Infection Research Experiment) Open Air Laboratory (OAL) on the Innovation Africa @UP Campus and close to the Future Africa campus and conference venue. This highly anticipated research site is a sister site to the University of Stellenbosch’s EucXylo Programme IMPACT Open Air Laboratory.