The fourteen International Symposia on Biological Control of Weeds, 1969–2014: Delegates,demographics and inferences from the debate on non-target effects |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Disease, German Heart Centre Munich, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany;2. Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany;3. Institute of Laboratory Medicine, German Heart Centre Munich, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany;4. Department of Congenital Heart Defects and Pediatric Cardiology, German Heart Centre Berlin and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany;5. DZHK (German Cardiovascular Research Centre), partner site Berlin, Berlin, Germany;6. Competence Network for Congenital Heart Defects, Berlin, Germany;1. International Joint Research Laboratory on Ecological Pest Management, Fuzhou, China;2. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia;3. China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China;4. Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China;5. Aarhus University, Slagelse, Denmark;6. Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada;7. Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand;8. Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Wagga Wagga, Australia;9. New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Menangle, Australia;10. Lethbridge Research Centre, Agriculture & Agri-Food, Lethbridge, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Since 1969, weed biological control (WBC) practitioners have met at a series of 14 International Symposia on Biological Control of Weeds (ISBCWs). These gatherings have had no societal organization, thus the published proceedings are the main source of information on the recent history of this sub-discipline. Only 1144 individuals (mostly entomologists and plant pathologists) have ever attended an ISBCW: 338 (29.6%) have been at more than one symposium, bringing the total number of attendees to 1972. About 75% of these have come from the main WBC implementing nations, the USA, Australia, South Africa, Canada, and New Zealand. The present analysis of ISBCW attendees has led to estimates that the global WBC research and development effort over the last 50 years has been the domain of about 450–550 WBC practitioners. WBC is presently beleaguered in the USA, Canada and Australia and attendance figures at recent ISBCWs are in decline. A case is made that these trends are largely due to the negative perceptions and damaging consequences of two decades of debates that have exaggerated the risks of non-target impacts and impeded progress in WBC. Further procrastination seems inevitable but in the interests of agriculture and conservation, WBC will need to be deployed more extensively if invasive alien (i.e., introduced, non-indigenous) plants are to be suppressed. In this context, the recent releases of WBC agents in Europe are signal events. It is mooted that a more formal and structured organization for the ISBCW meetings and perhaps a ‘rebranding’ of the sub-discipline is needed to champion and rekindle the practice of WBC. |
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| Keywords: | Invasive alien plants Phytophagous insects Plant pathogens Host specificity |
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