Are you producing a newsletter, holding a meeting, running an organization or rearing a natural enemy that you want other biocontrol workers to know about? Send us the details and we will announce it in BNI.

Mass Gathering

The 10th Workshop of the IOBC Global Working Group on Arthropod Mass Rearing and Quality Control (AMRQC) will take place in Montpellier, France on 21-24 September 2003.

The workshop will focus on all issues related to the rearing of entomophagous and phytophagous insects and mites, and to principles and practices of quality control. The programme will consist of invited papers presenting an overview of selected topics and contributed presentations on the different aspects of arthropod rearing as it relates to quality control. Papers will serve as a basis for discussion and exchange, with the final aim of improving collaboration among scientists and practitioners.

Contact: Ms. Mireille Montes de Oca,
IOBC AMRQC Workshop,
AGROPOLIS International,
Avenue Agropolis,
F-34394 Montpellier, Cedex 5, France
Email: iobc.workshop@agropolis.fr
Fax +33 4 67 04 75 99
Further information,
including a pre-registration document,
can be found on the AMRQC website:
www.AMRQC.org

❑

Canberra Bioherbicide Workshop

The next workshop of the International Bioherbicide Group (IBG) will be held as a satellite meeting during the International Symposium of Weed Biocontrol in Canberra, Australia in 2003 [www.ento.csiro.au/weeds2003]. Abstracts are requested from those interested in attending the IBG workshop.

International Bioherbicide Group
Newsletter:
http://ibg.ba.cnr.it

Contact: Maurizio Vurro,
Istituto di Scienze delle Produzioni
Alimentari,
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche,
Viale Einaudi 51, 70125 Bari, Italy
Email: ma.vurro@area.ba.cnr.it
Fax: +39 805486063

❑

Giant Hogweed Unites Europe

An international workshop on Heracleum mantegazzianum (giant hogweed), to be held on 5-7 March 2003 in Riga, Latvia, will bring together people from across Europe with an interest in this weed, including practitioners, policy makers and researchers from governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The meeting will be an opportunity to draw together knowledge of giant hogweed, and thus to provide an overview of its status in Europe, focusing in particular on its identification and distribution and control measures. Country status reports will be used to generate an initial set of best practice guidelines. These will be disseminated more widely by making them available for publication in delegates' own languages in literature available to local practitioners.

The specific aims of the workshop are to:

• Produce status reports on H. mantegazzianum for every country in which the species occurs, including Canada and the USA, which can be used to inform discussion and planning at the workshop
• Use the status reports to disseminate country information to practitioners, together with the overview of best practice
• Solicit feedback on the first draft of a giant hogweed management manual
• Disseminate further information on Heracleum mantegazzianum
• Establish good contacts across Europe and with North America

The status reports and a draft giant hogweed manual will be available at or just before the workshop. The status reports will be used as the basis for the proceedings of the workshop, which are to be published separately.

For further information and registration, see the giant hogweed homepage:
www.flec.kvl.dk/giant-alien/

Or contact:
Hans Peter Ravn,
Danish Forest and Landscape Research Institute
Email: hpr@fsl.dk

❑

Cocoa Conference

The 14th International Cocoa Research Conference will be held in Ghana in October 2003 with the theme, `Towards a Sustainable Cocoa Economy - What Strategies to this End?' One of the aims of the conference is to increase productivity and quality through production and distribution of improved planting material and promotion of IPM. It will include sessions on pests and diseases, agronomy and physiology, breeding, utilization of cocoa by-products and extension-transfer and efficient utilization of the results of cocoa research.

The conference is being organized by the Cocoa Producers' Alliance (COPAL).

Contact: Secretariat, Cocoa Producers' Alliance
Email: copal@alpha.linkserve.com

❑