A complete history of the IOBC was published in 1988.[8] Briefly, in 1948, the idea of an international organization on biological control was conceived. By 1950, the IUBS decided to support the establishment of a "Commission Internationale de Lutte Biologique" (CILB) as part of the IUBS Division of Animal Biology and a committee was established to further this concept. In 1955, the
statutes of the new organization were ratified by the IUBS and the first
plenary session of the CILB took place at
Antibes,
France. In 1965, CILB changed its name from "Commission" to "Organization" thus becoming the "International Organization of Biological Control of Noxious Animals and Plants". In 1969, under the auspices of the IUBS, an agreement was reached among organizations to merge IOBC and the "International advisory committee for biological Control" (active in English-speaking countries) into a single international organization under the name IOBC. The scientific journal Entomophaga was the official journal of the organization, until superseded by BioControl. In 1971, Global IOBC was established and the former IOBC became the West Palearctic Regional Section.
The IOBC promotes the development of biological control and its application in integrated pest management and international cooperation to these ends.
The IOBC collects, evaluates and disseminates information about biological control and promotes national and international action concerning research, training of personnel, coordination of large-scale application and public awareness of the economic and social importance of biological control.
The IOBC arranges conferences, meetings and symposia, and takes other actions to implement its general objectives.
Global IOBC
In addition to serving as an umbrella organization for the six regional sections, the global organization publishes proceedings of meetings, a newsletter, books, and has 10 working groups. These groups meet to discuss specific topics, usually agricultural pests which may often have a global impact.
Quality Control Standards
A set of standards were developed for assessing the quality control of commercially produced biological control agents.[15][16] These guidelines have been used.[17][18][19][20][21]
Commission on Biological Control and Access and Benefit Sharing
Under the 1993
Convention on Biological Diversity, countries have sovereign rights over their genetic resources, such as species collected for potential use in
biological control. This convention was put in place because the profits from
prospecting biodiversity have disproportionately benefited corporations from developed countries. Because researchers and Western businesses complained that giving developing countries such rights is problematic due to the new difficulties in legally acquiring potentially profitable species in several countries,[22] the Commission on Biological Control and Access and Benefit Sharing was established in 2008 to allow such parties access to these resources, with the supposition that any benefits arising from such access should be shared.[23] Parties continue to complain they need more access to the genetic resources of other countries than these standards allow.[24]
West Palaearctic Regional Section
The West Palaearctic Regional Section (i.e. Europe) is the most active of the regional sections with 20
working groups (that focus on crops, agricultural pests, and other topics) and five commissions which usually meet in different locations in member countries. It produces the IOBC/WPRS Bulletin, which in 2007 was listed as one of the top research journals for the
organic industry.[25]
Pesticide side-effects standards
The "Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms working group" is made up of scientists from many countries. They establish standards, which are periodically updated, for testing the side effects of pesticides on a large range of natural enemies of
crop pests, and rank those effects.[26][27][28][29] The purpose of establishing these standards is to be able to compare pesticides by their effect on beneficial organisms throughout all regions of the world. With the results obtained from these standardized tests, the best pesticides can be identified which enable enhanced survival of non-target organisms and the most
biological control due to reduced impact on beneficial organisms.[30] These standards have been adopted a number of scientists worldwide.[31][32][33][34]
^Franz, J.M. (1988). "Highlights in the development of the International Organization for Biological Contreol of noxious animals and plants". BioControl. 33 (2): 131–134.
doi:
10.1007/bf02372647.
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^Bigler, F. (1992). Report of the sixth workshop of the IOBC global working group "Quality control of mass reared arthropods". pp. 1–26.
^van Lenteren, J.C., Hale, A., Klapwijk, J.N.; et al. (2003). "Guidelines for quality control of commercially produced natural enemies". In van Lenteren, J.C. (ed.). Quality Control and Production of Biological Control Agents: Theory and Testing Procedures. CABI publishing.{{
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^Hassan S.A.; Zhang, W.Q. (2001). "Variability in Quality of Trichogramma brassicae (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) from Commercial Suppliers in Germany". Biological Control. 22 (2): 115–121.
doi:
10.1006/bcon.2001.0962.
^Fernandez, C.; Nentwig, W. "Quality control of the parasitoid Aphidius colemani (Hy., Aphidiidae) used for biological control in greenhouses". Journal of Applied Entomology. 121: 1–5.
^Luczynski, A., Nyrop, J.P., and Shi, A. (2008). "Pattern of female reproductive age classes in mass-reared populations of Phytoseiulus persimilis (Acari: Phytoseiidae) and its influence on population characteristics and quality of predators following cold storage". Biological Control. 47 (2): 159–166.
doi:
10.1016/j.biocontrol.2008.07.014.{{
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^Cock, M.J.W., van Lenteren, J.C., Brodeur, J.; et al. (2010). "Do new Access and Benefit Sharing procedures under the convention on Biological Diversity threaten the future of biological control?". BioControl. 55 (2): 199–218.
doi:
10.1007/s10526-009-9234-9.
S2CID30735425.{{
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^Hassan, S.A.; Bigler, F.; Bogenschutz, H.; et al. (1994). "Results of the sixth joint pesticide testing programme of the IOBC/WPRS-working group 'Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms'". BioControl. 39: 107–119.
doi:
10.1007/bf02373500.
S2CID5723268.
^Sterk, G., Hassan, S.A., Baillod, M.; et al. (1999). "Results of the seventh joint pesticide testing programme carried out by the IOBC/WPRS-Working Group 'Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms'". BioControl. 44: 99–117.
doi:
10.1023/A:1009959009802.
S2CID11648542.{{
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^Bellows, T.S.; Fisher, T.W. (1999). Chapter 13 Enhanced Biological Control through Pesticide Selectivity. In: Bellows, T.S.; Fisher, T.W. Handbook of Biological Control. Academic Press.
^Sabahi, Q, Rasekh, A., Sanqaki, A.H., and Garjan, A. (2009). "The persistence toxicity of three insecticides against adult of a thelytokous parasitoid, Lysiphlebus fabarum (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae)". Commun. Agric. Appl. Biol. Sci. 74 (1): 159–164.
PMID20218524.{{
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^Venkatesan, T., Jalali, S.K., Murthy, K.S.; et al. (2009). "Occurrence of insecticide resistance in field populations of Chrysoperla zastrowi arabica (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) in India". Commun. Agric. Appl. Biol. Sci. 79: 910–912.{{
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^Giolo, F.P., Medina, P., Grutzmacher, A.D.; et al. (2009). "Effects of pesticides commonly used in peach orchards in Brazil on predatory lacewing Chrysoperla carnea under laboratory conditions". BioControl. 54 (5): 625–635.
doi:
10.1007/s10526-008-9197-2.
S2CID11497065.{{
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^Vereijken (1990). chapter 18 Research on integrated arable farming and organic mixed farming in The Netherlands. In: Edwards, C.A., Lal, R., Madden, P.; et al. (June 1990).
Sustainable Agricultural Systems. United States Agency for International Development.
ISBN978-0-935734-21-8.{{
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^Dickler (1992). "Current situation of integrated plant-protection (IPP) in orchards in IOBC WPRS". ACTA Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica. 27: 23–28.
^Galli (1992). "Present status of guidelines for integrated fruit production and marketing in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)". ACTA Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica. 27: 251–256.