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Plant Protection - Preliminary Ss 12

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ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

   SECTION

 

PART I
Preliminary

              1.         Short title

              2.         Interpretation

 

PART II
Administration

              3.         Designation of National Plant Protection Organisation

              4.         Functions of National Plant Protection Organisation

              5.         Appointment of plant inspectors

              6.         Powers and duties of plant inspectors

              7.         Enforcement by plant inspectors

              8.         Detention certificate

              9.         Designation of laboratories and analysts

 

PART III
Imports

            10.         Restrictions on imports

            11.         Importation of plants, etc.

            12.         Examination and treatment of imported plants, etc.

            13.         Official powers regarding imported articles

            14.         Powers of Minister

            15.         Plant quarantine stations

            16.         Duty of other agents

 

PART IV
Containment and Eradication of Pests

            17.         Duty to notify NPPO of quarantine pests

            18.         Quarantine

            19.         Treatment and destruction of infected plants

            20.         Lifting of quarantine

            21.         Pest free areas and areas of low pest prevalence

 

PART V
Exports and Re-exports

            22.         Requirements for exports and re-exports

            23.         Inspection of exports

 

PART VI
Liability, Appeals and Offences

            24.         Protection from liability

            25.         Compensation

            26.         Appeals

            27.         Offences

 

PART VII
Miscellaneous

            28.         Minister's powers of exemption

            29.         Regulations

            30.         Repeal and savings

 

                        First Schedule - Quarantine Pests for Botswana

                        Second Schedule - Regulated Non-quarantined Pests for Botswana

                        Third Schedule - Detention Certificate

                        Fourth Schedule - Approved Ports of Entry

                        Fifth Schedule - Plant Import Permit

                        Sixth Schedule - Phytosanitary Certificate

                        Seventh Schedule - Re-export Phytosanitary Certificate

 

Proc. 19, 1959,
G.N. 7, 1959,
Law 30, 1962,
HMC.  Order 1, 1963,
L.N. 84, 1966,
Act 21, 2007,
S.I. 17, 2009.

An Act to prevent the introduction, spread and establishment of plant pests; to facilitate trade in plants; to enable Botswana to comply with its international obligations; and to provide for matters incidental thereto.

[Date of Commencement: 1st April 2009]

1.       Short title

          This Act may be cited as the Plant Protection Act.

2.       Interpretation

          In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-

          "affected" means infected or infested with a pest;

          "area" means an area, place or site of production;

          "area of low pest prevalence" means an area, whether the whole of Botswana or part of Botswana, as identified by the Minister, in which a specific pest occurs at low levels and which is subject to effective surveillance, control or eradication measures;

          "beneficial organism" means any organism including fungus, bacteria, virus, virus-like organisms and invertebrate or any other animal which is declared by the Minister in writing to be beneficial to flora or agricultural production;

          "Committee" means the Appeals Committee established under section 26;

          "consignment" means a quantity of plants, plant products or other regulated articles being moved from one country to another and covered, when required, by a single phytosanitary certificate;

          "contain" means to apply phytosanitary measures in and around an infested area to prevent the spread of a pest;

          "container" means a box, bag or other receptacle in which plants, plant products or other regulated articles that may carry pests have been or are being transported;

          "control" means to suppress, contain or eradicate a pest population;

          "conveyance" means any vessel, aircraft, train, vehicle, cart, container, animal or other thing that can convey plants, plant products, pests, beneficial organisms or other regulated articles from one place to another;

          "detain" means to keep a consignment in official custody or confinement for phytosanitary reasons, and "detention" shall have a corresponding meaning;

          "entry" means the movement of a pest into an area where it is not yet present, or present but not widely distributed and being officially controlled;

          "eradicate" means to apply phytosanitary measures to eliminate a pest from an area, and "eradication" shall have a corresponding meaning;

          "establishment", in relation to a pest, means the perpetuation, for the foreseeable future, of a pest within an area after entry;

          "germplasm" means plants intended for use in breeding or conservation programmes;

          "importer" means anyone who, whether as owner, consignor, consignee, agent, broker or otherwise, is in possession of or in any way entitled to the custody of any plant, plant product, pest, beneficial organism or other regulated article landed or likely to be landed in Botswana from another country;

          "inspection" means official visual examination of plants, plant products or other regulated articles to determine if pests are present or to determine compliance with phytosanitary standards;

          "introduction" means the entry of a pest resulting in its establishment in Botswana;

          "IPPC" means the International Plant Protection Convention;

          "Secretariat" means the Secretariat appointed under Article XII of the International Plant Protection Convention;

          "National Plant Protection Organisation" (in this Act referred to as "the NPPO") means the official unit designated by the Minister under section 3 to discharge the functions assigned to such unit under the IPPC;

          "occupier", in relation to any land or building, means a person in actual occupation thereof;

          "official control" means the active enforcement of mandatory phytosanitary regulations and the application of mandatory phytosanitary procedures with the objective of eradication or containment of quarantine pests or for the management of regulated non-quarantine pests;

          "outbreak" means an isolated pest population, recently detected and expected to survive for the immediate future;

          "owner", in relation to any thing, includes any person having for the time being the possession, custody or control thereof;

          "packaging" means any material used to pack, contain or keep plants, plant products or other regulated articles;

          "pest" means any species, strain or biotype of plant, animal or pathogenic agent injurious to plants or plant products;

          "pest free area" means an area in which a specific pest does not occur as demonstrated by scientific evidence and in which, where appropriate, this condition is being officially maintained;

          "pest risk analysis" means the process of evaluating biological or other scientific and economic evidence to determine whether a pest should be regulated and the strength of any phytosanitary measures to be taken against it;

          "phytosanitary certificate" means a certificate patterned after the model certificate of the IPPC, and which is set out in the Sixth Schedule;

          "phytosanitary measure" means any legislation, regulation or official procedure having the purpose of preventing the introduction or spread of quarantine pests, or limiting the economic impact of regulated non- quarantine pests;

          "plant" means living plants or parts thereof, including seeds and germplasm;

          "plant inspector" means any person appointed or designated to carry out the functions of a plant inspector under this Act;

          "plant product" means any unmanufactured material of plant origin (including grain) and those manufactured products which, by their nature or that of their processing, may create a risk for the introduction and spread of pests;

          "pre-clearance" means phytosanitary certification or clearance in the exporting country, performed by or under the supervision of the NPPO;

          "premises" means land or any building or other structure situated on land;

          "quarantine pest" means a pest of potential economic importance to the area endangered thereby, not yet present there, or present but not widely distributed and being officially controlled, and declared as such in the First Schedule to this Act;

          "re-export phytosanitary certificate" means a certificate in the form set out in the Seventh Schedule;

          "regular business hours" means the normal operating hours of government offices in Botswana;

          "regulated article" means any storage place, packaging, conveyance, container, soil and any other organism, object or material capable of harbouring or spreading pests, deemed to require phytosanitary measures, particularly where international transportation is involved, and includes beneficial organisms;

          "regulated non-quarantine pest" means any pest which is not a quarantine pest, whose presence in plants for planting affects the intended use of those plants with an economically unacceptable impact and which is therefore regulated within the territory of Botswana, and which is declared as such in the Second Schedule;

          "regulated pest" means a quarantine pest or a regulated non-quarantine pest;

          "surveillance" means an official process which collects and records data on pest occurrence or absence by survey, monitoring or other procedures;

          "treatment" means an officially authorised procedure for the killing or removal of pests or rendering pests infertile.