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Third International Congress of Biological Control (ICBC3)

24-27 June 2024, San José, Costa Rica

The 3rd International Congress of Biological Control was held in San Jose, Costa Rica from the 24th to the 27th of June this year and was co-convened by IOBC-Global and CABI, and locally supported by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Costa Rica (MA&L), and the University of Costa Rica (UCR).

We learnt a huge amount about the diverse biological control activities in Central and South America.

The congress attracted 320 delegates of 40 countries to an excellent venue, where the science was of a high standard and the debate robust. There were six excellent plenary papers covering the entire value chain of biological control that really set the scene for the congress, where 162 papers and 52 posters were presented.

Opening session ICBC3, San José, Costa Rica, June 2024

A highlight were the two panel sessions, the first one on day one entitled: What needs to be done to improve the uptake of biological control? A multi-stakeholder perspective. Here the panellists discussed developments in the more commercial side of the discipline, and concentrating on South and Central America. It was fascinating to see how different countries handled the bureaucratic side of biological control and drove the development of biocontrol products in those countries.
The second panel discussion on the final day dealt with a very similar topic, but in this dealt with what are the enablers and challenges to classical biological control. The take home message from this panel discussion was that, unlike augmentative biocontrol (including biopesticides) that is largely driven by the end user, classical biological is largely driven by the scientists doing the research and much more is needed to ensure mainstream uptake of the technology.

Congress website: https://www.iobc-icbc.com

Third International Congress of Biological Control (ICBC3) 24-27 June 2024, San José, Costa Rica

 

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Representatives of Costa Rican organizations at the opening session