Forestry officials from Central, Eastern and Western parts of the country and 6 BSc. Sustainable Development CNR final semester graduates on attachment are currently undergoing training on, “ ToT: Pest Detection, Surveillance, Specimen Collection and Reporting” at the Institute. The main objective of the training is to build capacity of master trainer in the field of entomology focusing mainly on Adelgid specimen collection and embedding pest data in the SMART system developed by the Department of Forests and Park Services. These master trainers are expected to eventually impart knowledge gained through this training to our forestry colleagues back in their respective field offices. The training will be held over four days from 26^th-29^th of April and is funded by the Republic of Korea through AFoCO-NiFOS research project on “Assessment of adelgid diversity and distribution of conifer forest of Bhutan to mitigate future outbreaks”.

The participants will be trained on both theoretical and practical aspects of insect identification, insect collection, surveying techniques, data collection using epicollect5 and reporting. The training is carried out following covid-19 prevention protocol.