5.6 The role and relationship of scientific and official information The differences between scientific and official information under the IPPC context were discussed. The workshop agreed that any information coming from a source other than the IPPC Contact Point was not regarded as official information. Official information was information that was accepted by the government. Scientific information (information sourced from the scientific community and peer-reviewed publications) should be sourced from different establishments to ensure validity, with the inclusion of references where available.
There should also be an effort to facilitate the exchange of information within the country, in addition to that among countries. The participants agreed that both types of information would be difficult to acquire based on limited resources available to less-developed countries.
