China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administrations (CNFGA) has warned that the country is at risk of a desert locust invasion and has urged local authorities to prepare for the possible arrival of the insects from neighbouring Pakistan and India.
Reuters reports that although the risk of the locust swarms entering China is low for now, should the swarms arrive, the country won’t be equipped to track them because of a lack of monitoring techniques, little knowledge of migration patterns, as well as the fact that Chinese nationals are nowhere near returning to work.
The locust swarms have wreaked havoc in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Pakistan and India. – Zoë van Rooyen
