BioControl DOI 10.1007/s10526-009-9234-9 FORUM PAPER Do new Access and Benefit Sharing procedures under the Convention on Biological Diversity threaten the future of biological control? Matthew J. W. Cock • Joop C. van Lenteren • Jacques Brodeur • Barbara I. P. Barratt • Franz Bigler • Karel Bolckmans • Fernando L. Coˆnsoli • Fabian Haas • Peter G. Mason • Jose´ Roberto P. Parra Received: 25 August 2009 / Accepted: 28 September 2009 Ó International Organization for Biological Control (IOBC) 2009 Abstract Under the Convention on Biological benefits arising from their use need to be established Diversity (CBD) countries have sovereign rights over between involved parties [i.e. Access and Benefit their genetic resources. Agreements governing the Sharing (ABS)]. This also applies to species collected access to these resources and the sharing of the for potential use in biological control. Recent appli- cations of CBD principles have already made it difficult or impossible to collect and export natural Handling Editor: Eric Wajnberg. enemies for biological control research in several countries. If such an approach is widely applied it Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10526-009-9234-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. M. J. W. Cock (&) K. Bolckmans CABI Europe-Switzerland, Rue des Grillons 1, Koppert B.V., Veilingweg 14, Postbus 155, 2800 Dele´mont, Switzerland 2650 AD Berkel en Rodenrijs, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] J. C. van Lenteren F. L. Coˆnsoli Á J. R. P. Parra Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, Departamento de Entomologia e Acarologia, P.O. Box 8031, 6700 EH Wageningen, The Netherlands ESALQ/USP, Caixa Postal 09, 13418-900 Piracicaba, SP, e-mail: [email protected] Brazil e-mail: [email protected] J. Brodeur J. R. P. Parra Institut de recherche en biologie ve´ge´tale, Universite´ de e-mail: [email protected] Montre´al, 4101, rue Sherbrooke Est, Montre´al, QC H1X 2B2, Canada F. Haas e-mail: [email protected] Icipe, Duduville Campus, Kasarani, P.O. Box 30772 – 00100, Nairobi, Kenya B. I. P. Barratt e-mail: [email protected] AgResearch Limited, Invermay Agricultural Centre, Puddle Alley, Private Bag 50034, Mosgiel, New Zealand P. G. Mason e-mail: [email protected] Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Research Centre, K.W. Neatby Building, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, F. Bigler ON K1A 0C6, Canada Agroscope Reckenholz-Ta¨nikon Research Station ART, e-mail: [email protected] Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046 Zurich, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] 123 M. J. W. Cock et al. would impede this very successful and environmen- Introduction tally safe pest management method based on the use of biological diversity. The CBD is required to agree Biological control (BC)—the use of an organism to a comprehensive Access and Benefit Sharing process reduce the population density of another organism— in 2010, in preparation for which the IOBC (Inter- is one of the most environmentally safe and econom- national Organization for Biological Control of ically profitable pest management methods (Cameron Noxious Animals and Plants) Global Commission et al. 1989; Clausen 1978; Cock 1985; Mason and on Biological Control and Access and Benefit Huber 2002; Neuenschwander et al. 2003; Water- Sharing has prepared this position paper. Here, we house and Sands 2001). BC can contribute to solve or first describe the practice of biological control in help to manage indigenous and alien pest problems in relation to the principles of ABS, illustrated exten- diverse natural and managed ecosystems. In BC, sively by case studies and successes obtained with parasitoids, predators, pathogens, herbivores and biological control. Next, we emphasise the very antagonists are used to reduce populations of pests, limited monetary benefits generated in biological diseases and weeds. We examine BC as practised control when compared to other fields of ABS such as over the last 120 years during which at least 165 pest the collection of germplasm for development of and weed species have been brought under permanent human drugs, chemical pesticides or crop cultivars. or temporary control. During this period, more than Subsequently, we inform the biological control 7,000 introductions of biological control agents community of good ABS practice and challenges, (BCAs) involving almost 2,700 species have been and we hope to make clear to the community made, and in addition 170 species are produced and involved in ABS under the CBD the special situation sold globally for periodical release to control more with regard to biological control. Finally, based on than 100 pest species (see ‘‘On-going practice in the non-commercial academic research model, we biological control in relation to Access and Benefit make recommendations which would facilitate the Sharing’’ of this paper). practice of collection and exchange of biological Alien species are being introduced accidentally or control agents, propose a workable framework to deliberately around the world at an increasing rate, assist policy makers and biological control practitio- driven by factors such as increasing trade, travel and ners, and urge biological control leaders in each tourism (Wittenberg and Cock 2001). A proportion of country to get involved in the discussions with their these become established and a proportion of those national ABS contact point to take their needs into established become pests or invasive in natural consideration. habitats. In addition, as most of the world’s crop plants are alien species in much of the area where Keywords Biological control Á Access they are grown, there remains great potential for pests and Benefit Sharing Á Convention on Biological from the crops’ areas of origin to be introduced into Diversity Á History Á Monetary Á Non-monetary Á new areas. Furthermore, the spread around the world Genetic resources, biological control agent of new crops such as those grown for agrifuel, will create new opportunities for pest introductions. Abbreviations In contrast, deliberate introductions and releases of ABC Augmentative biological control exotic BCAs have resulted in remarkably few prob- ABS Access and Benefit Sharing lems (Lynch et al. 2001), although there are some BC Biological control exceptions (Howarth 1991; Louda et al. 2003). Nev- BCA Biological control agent ertheless, risk analysis for non-target species is now CBC Classical biological control recommended for BC programmes (Bigler et al. 2006; CBD Convention on Biological Diversity IPPC 2005; van Lenteren et al. 2006). Initially, it was COP Conference of Parties thought that this would impede new BC programmes, IOBC International Organization for Biological but results published by Kairo et al. (2003) indicate Control of Noxious Animals and that, although some delay in application may occur, the Plants annual number of new natural enemies becoming 123 Do new Access and Benefit Sharing procedures available for use has not decreased. However, a new Nations (FAO) by the authors, in their capacity as and potentially serious threat to the use of BC has members of the IOBC Global Commission on ABS recently become apparent. Under the Convention on (Cock et al. 2009;IOBC2008). The report specifi- Biological Diversity (CBD), countries have sovereign cally addressed the use of invertebrates in BC, and rights over the genetic resources within their bound- while this bias has been maintained here, the aries and that agreements governing access to genetic principles presented are directly applicable to the resources and sharing of benefits arising from their use use of pathogens in BC. The report to FAO was should be established between the parties involved. concerned with BC principally in the context of This is known as Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS). agriculture and forestry, although BC is increasingly ABS applies to all BCAs taken from one country to commonly used to address pests of natural ecosys- another. BC practitioners will need to comply with tems (Wittenberg and Cock 2001; Case Study 4). whatever ABS regime is agreed by the tenth meeting of Furthermore, BC has been used or considered for pest the Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP10) in management in other sectors including management 2010. Recent applications of CBD principles have of vectors of human and animal diseases, pests of already created barriers to collection and export of humans and animals, nuisance and disease-transmit- natural enemies for BC research (Case Studies 1–3; for ting flies breeding in animal dung, alien species in all case studies see Annex 1—Electronic supplemen- other production systems, e.g. water weeds affecting tary material) in several countries. If this approach is fisheries, transport, power generation, etc. (Case widely applied it will seriously compromise this very Study 5), and ecosystem services such as recycling successful and environmentally safe pest management animal dung in pasture. The same principles of ABS method. apply in all these uses. This report included a series of Unlike some other uses of genetic resources (e.g. case studies which are included here as Electronic in medicine), traditional knowledge held by individ- supplementary material available on the journal uals and communities of indigenous people (a website. These are intended to provide real examples strongly argued principle under the CBD) is not of many of the points made and to bring out issues relevant to finding and identifying potentially useful relating to ABS in the practice of ABC and CBC. natural enemies, and there is no case known where In this paper, we aim to: such knowledge would have been needed. This 1. clarify the practice of BC in relation to the should not be confused with local scientific knowl- principles of ABS, illustrating the benefits for edge about habitats, fauna and flora, which clearly countries providing BCAs, can assist in finding appropriate locations for surveys 2.