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The use of living organisms or natural substances to counteract the damage caused by harmful organisms to economically and/or ecologically important species has provided significant benefits to the global community. The Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol, a supplementary agreement to it, regulate access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable distribution of benefits arising out of their utilization. Despite the good intentions pursued by the international regime—mainly, the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity—, non-strategic national measures adopted pursuant to the Convention and the Protocol may create obstacles or even impede access to, and use of biological control genetic resources. In view of that, this paper recommends different pathways the scientists and practitioners working in the field of biological control may consider in order to enhance access to these resources.

The key challenges, successes and failures of global biological control, and future directions.

The third objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of genetic resources was further developed when the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing came into effect in 2014. Interpretation of how this agreement is being implemented is wide-ranging and there are implications for biological control. A survey of biological control workers indicated that while some countries have facilitated access to biological control genetic resources, requirements in other countries have impeded biological control implementation. There was consensus that benefits to provider countries should be in the form of supporting local research communities. There was also agreement that the free use and exchange of biological control genetic resources has provided benefits to the global community, including to both providers and recipients of the agents. It is recommended that consideration of the free use and exchange principal should be a key element of Access and Benefit Sharing measures for the future.

We report the first detection of Trissolcusjaponicus , an exotic Asian egg parasitoid and the primary candidate for classical biological control of the invasive brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorphahalys , in Canada. Twenty-eight Trissolcusjaponicus emerged from an H.halys egg mass from a site heavily infested by H.halys in Chilliwack, British Columbia, in 2018. This egg mass was deployed and retrieved as part of ongoing sentinel egg mass surveys for natural enemies of H.halys from 2017–2018 in coastal and interior British Columbia (total of 1,496 egg clusters at 16 sites). The identification of T.japonicus was based on biology (high levels of successful emergence from H.halys eggs), morphology, and mitochondrial DNA sequences. Trissolcusjaponicus was not detected at any other survey sites in 2017–2018; however, three species of indigenous egg parasitoids were found attending or emerging from H.halys egg masses at low levels (<4%) at several sites. The origin of the detected T.japonicus , the extent of its establishment in British Columbia, and its ultimate impact on H.halys populations remain to be determined. Nonetheless, the detection of this exotic biological control agent in Canada concurrently with regulatory review of its intentional importation and release is emblematic of the current uncertainty around regulatory control on the movement of biological control agents across borders.

Under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) countries have sovereign rights over their genetic resources. Agreements governing the access to these resources and the sharing of the benefits arising from their use need to be established between involved parties [i.e. Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)]. This also applies to species collected for potential use in biological control. Recent applications of CBD principles have already made it difficult or impossible to collect and export natural enemies for biological control research in several countries. If such an approach is widely applied it would impede this very successful and environmentally safe pest management method based on the use of biological diversity. The CBD is required to agree a comprehensive Access and Benefit Sharing process in 2010, in preparation for which the IOBC (International Organization for Biological Control of Noxious Animals and Plants) Global Commission on Biological Control and Access and Benefit Sharing has prepared this position paper. Here, we first describe the practice of biological control in relation to the principles of ABS, illustrated extensively by case studies and successes obtained with biological control. Next, we emphasise the very limited monetary benefits generated in biological control when compared to other fields of ABS such as the collection of germplasm for development of human drugs, chemical pesticides or crop cultivars. Subsequently, we inform the biological control community of good ABS practice and challenges, and we hope to make clear to the community involved in ABS under the CBD the special situation with regard to biological control. Finally, based on the non-commercial academic research model, we make recommendations which would facilitate the practice of collection and exchange of biological control agents, propose a workable framework to assist policy makers and biological control practitioners, and urge biological control leaders in each country to get involved in the discussions with their national ABS contact point to take their needs into consideration.

The contributions in this Special Issue originate from a Symposium “Classical biological control of weeds and arthropods: Evaluation of social, economic and ecological benefits\" presented at the 26th International Congress of Entomology, held in Helsinki, Finland in 2022. Following an opening article analyzing agent and target traits associated with greater success odds in weed biological control, a perspective article summarizing how biological control programs are currently assessed and how they may be evaluated going forward frames the articles in the Special Issue. Articles assess different dimensions of success for selected weed and arthropod biocontrol programs either on the individual project level or through summaries of recent projects for geographic regions. Success dimensions include economic, ecological and socio-economic benefits. Included are also several articles that summarize or propose the use of innovative tools to improve biological control as a discipline going forward. Overall, this Special Issue portrays a status quo of biological control characterized by thoughtful analyses of project outcomes and recommendations to improve outcome assessments and increase the odds of success. As such, an optimistic prognosis for biological control is provided.

The Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol establish that genetic resources shall be accessed only upon the existence of prior informed consent of the country that provides those resources and that benefits arising from their utilization shall be shared. Pursuant to both agreements several countries have adopted regulations on access and benefit-sharing. These regulations have created a challenging obstacle to classical biological control of weeds. This paper reviews the experiences of Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the USA, Canada and CABI in implementing access and benefit-sharing regulations and the implications these measures have on the effective and efficient access, exchange and utilization of biological control agents. We conclude that policy makers should be made aware of the key role biological control plays for agriculture and the environment and they are encouraged to develop tailored access and benefit-sharing legal frameworks that facilitate biological control research and implementation.

The use of exotic (=alien) arthropods in classical and augmentative biological control programs has yielded huge economic and ecological benefits. Exotic species of arthropods have contributed to the suppression of key pests in agriculture and forestry or have aided in restoring natural systems affected by adventive species. However, adverse non-target effects of exotic biological control agents have been observed in a number of projects. Non-target effects range from very small effects, e.g. 2% parasitization on a non-target insect on a local level, to massive effects on a large scale. Until now, no consensus on how to judge the magnitude of non-target effects and whether these effects can be tolerated or are unacceptable has emerged. In this paper, we briefly review both the benefits of biological control as well as the associated risks including to human and animal health, plant health and particularly the environment. We also make an attempt at identifying the major challenges for assessing risks and for balancing benefits and risks. There is general agreement that sound risk assessment procedures should precede the release of exotic invertebrate biological control agents and a recent shift—especially for arthropod biological control—from introductions done without meaningful risk assessment studies to projects conducting thorough host range testing can be observed. However, overly stringent regulations that would preclude promising agents from being developed must be avoided.

There is no consensus on the overwintering strategy used by the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae). As a result, the topic of diamondback moth overwintering in temperate climates remains controversial. However, there has been general agreement that the diamondback moth does not overwinter in diapause. This review compiles data on low temperature survival to determine cold tolerance mechanisms and the cold tolerance strategy of the diamondback moth. According to cold tolerance data and observations from key overwintering studies in eastern North America, the diamondback moth likely overwinters in a quiescent state in no specific overwintering stage and is chill susceptible. Observations from key overwintering studies suggest a northern overwintering limit for diamondback moth of ~43°N in eastern North America. Climate change may alter winter conditions in temperate climates, making temperate regions susceptible to potential diamondback moth overwintering and recurring outbreaks.

The Nagoya Protocol actions the third objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity and provides a framework to effectively implement the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of genetic resources. This includes microorganisms used as biological control agents. Thus biological control practitioners must comply with access and benefit-sharing regulations that are implemented by countries providing microbial biological control agents. A review of best practices and guidance for the use and exchange of microorganisms used for biological control has been prepared by the IOBC Global Commission on Biological Control and Access and Benefit-Sharing to demonstrate commitment to comply with access and benefit-sharing requirements, and to reassure the international community that biological control is a very successful and environmentally safe pest management strategy that uses biological resources responsibly and sustainably. We propose that best practices include the following elements: collaboration to facilitate information exchange about the availability of microbial biological control agents and where they may be sourced; freely sharing available knowledge in databases about successes and failures; collaborative research with provider countries to develop capacity; and production technology transfer to provide economic opportunities. We recommend the use of model concept agreements for accessing microorganisms for scientific research and non-commercial release into nature where access and benefit-sharing regulations exist and where regulations are not restrictive or do not exist. We also recommend a model agreement for deposition of microbial biological control agents into culture collections.