PestNet has 500 members, more than one-third of whom live in 40 tropical countries, including those in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Members also come from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. PestNet uses the Yahoo! Groups email listserver, which is configured to allow a moderator to screen postings before they are distributed to members. There is an average of 40 postings per month; these are archived on the Yahoo! Groups website and can be searched.

The network deals with topics including quarantine concerns, biological control and pest management issues, pest outbreak alerts, and various forms of the question: 'what's this pest and how can I control it?' Digital photographs of pests attached to messages have yielded quick responses with tentative identifications, often accompanied by offers from taxonomists to examine specimens for confirmation of diagnoses free of charge. As an example, quarantine officials in the Republic of Palau recently intercepted and photographed a lizard. The image was sent to PestNet, identified by an institute in Beijing, and confirmed by a specialist in Samoa within one hour.

PestNet recently also hosts a website that provides a directory of online plant protection resources relevant to the region, a pest identification form to be used when sending images, and guidelines for sampling/handling specimens for preservation and identification. The site also features a regularly updated gallery of photographs posted since the inception of PestNet.

Rural email centres are being set up on various Pacific islands to enable greater access to PestNet. A pilot scheme to test this idea is due to begin in 2003 in the Solomon Islands, with funding from the World Bank, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and AusAID. Four NGOs will collaborate to provide remote communities the opportunity to access timely information on plant pests, especially those that attack staple food crops.

Agriculture, Technology.

Pests severely limit agricultural production in tropical countries; when they attack, the damage can be severe. To prevent disaster, farmers need advice immediately. If there is no local taxonomist and specimens have to be sent overseas for identification, the process is time-consuming and costly. Many countries do not have reference collections of insects, diseases and weeds, or adequate libraries to check pest control recommendations. Even if the information is available - in books, journals, CD-ROMs, or online - it is sometimes difficult to interpret or may not cover all the pests of concern.